Home For Christmas
by Ooshka
Summary: Sequel to Homestay. What happens next for Eric and Sookie?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N Yeah, I got a bit bored not writing anything! So here is a sequel to Homestay, it picks up right from the end of chapter 32. So I hope you all enjoy!**

SPOV

I went to get Amelia and Felicia back from a rather stressed-looking Halleigh, who I think was having second thoughts about having more than one child. I looked at her swollen stomach, it was far, far too late for her to realise that now.

Amelia had to be prised away from where she was 'helping' Riley with a sticker book, which meant that she was putting the stickers in while he got to watch. She didn't want to come with me. I said there was a surprise at home and even that didn't work. I didn't want to say 'Guess what? Eric actually stayed' in front of Halleigh, as I didn't really feel comfortable with her knowing what was or wasn't going on at our house. But I would have thought she'd at least get interested enough to wonder if she was getting a marshmallow. She was obviously really upset.

So we walked home and in the front door. Amelia trudged into the family room with me behind her, carrying Felicia, and stopped when she saw Eric. "You didn't go?" she asked him.

Eric looked a bit worried. "Um, I did" he said "but I, um, came back." He looked at me to check that was right and I shrugged. I was really no help here. Amelia went racing over and hugged him. Oh good, I thought, this will cheer her up. But then she said "Mummy made you go and I was sad."

Eric looked a bit shocked "No, she didn't" he said "I, um, had to go…"

"That's what she always says. But you're back now." She threw herself at him with another hug, and then stalked off to her room.

I was stunned. She hated me. Thanks to my evil fucking mother in law, my 3 year old daughter hated me.

EPOV

I felt like shit. Amelia was upset with Sookie and it was all my fucking fault for leaving here the night before. I guess Sookie had told her I was gone and that was that. Fuck. The poor kid had already lost her dad and God knows what she'd thought when I disappeared. Shit, I was over my head with this as it was; I wasn't equipped to deal with Amelia's feelings.

And Sookie's feelings about Amelia, I realised as Sookie started banging things around in the kitchen, under the pretext of making lunch. Now she was pissed. Maybe I should have left this morning when I had the chance?

I went into the kitchen "Sookie, um, it's OK." She whipped around "What's OK Eric?" she said sharply. Shit, this was not going at all well. I'd been here officially, what, less than an hour? Fuck.

But then she sighed. "Look, sorry. It's not you; I'm just pissed off about the whole thing. Lorena didn't help at all."

I was happy I seemed to be out of the immediate firing line, but lost as to what else was going on. "Lorena? What, at the barbecue yesterday?"

"No, probably when she was babysitting at some stage. She told Amelia that I made Bill leave, and then Amelia thought I made you leave, and now she's completely confused the poor kid. She probably expects Bill to walk back in the door at any minute."

Yeah, thank fuck that wasn't happening.

"Oh, OK." I said. "Do you want me to, um, talk to her?"

Sookie looked at me. "No, I think I'll just wait a bit for her to get over it. Maybe I'll try distracting her or something."

"Are you sure?"

"Look, Eric, I think I know my own daughter, OK? It will be fine. She will get over it."

Sookie was on the verge of yelling so I decided that I'd really better shut up about it before Sookie realised my stuff was still packed and I was therfore pretty easy to throw out as a consequence. "So, can I help with lunch?" I asked.

Amelia and Sookie managed to call a truce for lunch, but spent most of the afternoon avoiding each other. Sookie and Felicia sat on a picnic rug on the lawn under a sun umbrella and Felicia cried every time she crawled onto the grass. Amelia tried to coax Bob out from under a bush to play with her. I tried to work out where was most neutral. It was fucking hard.

In the end I joined Sookie and Felicia. "She's still really upset." Sookie said. "I thought by now she'd be over it."

I still felt kind of bad about the whole thing. Which fucking annoyed me when there was a perfectly good scapegoat in form of an evil old cow called Lorena. I sighed. This wasn't quite the picture I had when Sookie had let me stay this morning.

Then I had an idea. "What about movie night?" I asked.

Sookie had been staring at Amelia who had her back to us. "What?" she said turning round.

"Movie night. Amelia likes that. We could have movie night tonight, let her pick one, watch it on your bed…" I trailed off hoping Sookie was getting the idea.

"Oh. Yeah, I guess we could try it." She didn't sound enthused.

"It'll be great!" I said, with more enthusiasm than was really required in an effort to win Sookie over. "And then afterwards, we could, I don't know…snuggle?" I looked at Sookie, hoping she was catching my meaning. If I was staying I got celebratory sex, didn't I?

"Oh, yeah, right." Sookie said in a flat voice. That didn't sound promising. "I, uh, meant to say I got my period today so there's no sex at the moment. I'm crampy and bloaty and feel like shit."

OK, so maybe I didn't. I guess this was welcome to relationship-land. I tried not to look too disappointed, because I really didn't think that would fucking go down well at the moment and just said "Right, no problem. But, uh, we can still do the movie for Amelia?"

"Yeah, I guess so. It's worth a shot." Sookie's voice was still flat.

"OK, well do you want me to tell her?"

"You might as well; she's not really talking to me at the moment." Sookie snorted. Oh, this wasn't good and I really wanted to fix it.

I wandered over to Amelia who was waving a stick at Bob. She had the end of it really close to his face, and was getting frustrated that he wouldn't come out and play. I didn't blame him really.

"Hey, Amelia" I said. She didn't say anything back, but stopped moving the stick. "So, um, your mom and I were thinking that maybe we could do movie night tonight? And you could pick? What do you think?"

"Yeah, that sounds OK, I guess. Eric, will you play with me?" I really wanted to spend my time with Sookie, who was still sitting there looking sad, but Amelia's little face looked so hopeful I couldn't say no. "Sure, OK" I said.

When I managed to extricate myself from Amelia, Sookie was stomping around the kitchen again. "So, we're on for movie night…" I said.

"Great." Sookie commented, in a voice that suggested it really wasn't.

"She's picking right now."

"Yeah, fine. Whatever. Hopefully that will snap her out of this mood." I wondered what would snap Sookie out of her mood.

"You sure you don't want me to say something to her…" Sookie cut me off.

"Nope. Absolutely not Eric. It will be fine." Sookie stomped around a bit then said "OK, well dinner's nearly ready. It's bangers and mash."

That meant fuck all to me, but I wasn't disappointed when I discovered I was getting sausages, mashed potatoes and gravy. I was getting kind of used to this being fed shit. I could understand why Bob hung around.

After dinner we sat on Sookie's bed. Amelia pointedly sat next to me on the outside of the bed, so I was between her and Sookie. When I'd asked Amelia what she wanted to watch earlier on I'd made a discovery. Apparently, there's more than one movie about Tinkerbell. Tonight we were watching the second one.

I zoned out for the first bit. Amelia wasn't asking questions, Sookie was busy giving Felicia a bottle then took her off to bed. After a while though I started to pay attention, simply for the lack of anything else to do. The plot seemed to involve Tinkerbell stomping around a lot and yelling at some dumb-shit boy fairy every time he tried to help.

And then it occurred to me. I watched Sookie stomp back into the room casting a dirty look at where Amelia was leaning into me. Shit, that's why Amelia liked Tinkerbell. It reminded her of her mother. I kind of wanted to tell someone my great revelation, but I wasn't sure that Sookie would appreciate the insight.

When the movie finished, Amelia said goodnight to me and trudged off with her mother silently. They were both so stubborn that at this point my money was on it lasting until Amelia left for college.

Sookie came back into the room and sat on the bed. "I just don't know what to do" she said. "I don't understand why she won't get over it. I could…I could just murder Lorena. I'm never speaking to that evil bitch again."

I just stayed quiet. I wasn't sure how tenuous my position in the house was and I still hadn't got around to taking anything out of my fucking bag.

Sookie scooted over the bed to snuggle into my side. "I'm going to have to call Lorena and tell her what she's done to Amelia. Hopefully she'll promise not to do it again."

"Yeah, I wouldn't bother." I said.

"I've got to do something Eric! She can't just get away with it. Amelia thinks I'm horrible and it's all her fault."

"I just don't think she'll listen, or care."

"Of course she'll care! She loves Amelia, underneath it all."

"But she doesn't give a shit about your feelings."

Sookie went quiet. "Yeah, I guess you're right. But I feel like I should do something. She can't just get away with it."

"Well I wouldn't accuse her outright, she'll deny it."

"Well what would you suggest, Eric?"

I sighed. Sookie was starting to get annoyed with me again. "I just think that she's a bitch, isn't that right?" Sookie nodded. "Well then you have to, I don't know. Out-bitch her."

"Out-bitch her?"

"Yeah. Do something that will make her back off once and for all. But which doesn't look like you've actually threatened her. Or accused her of anything."

Sookie was looking interested. "How do I do that?"

"That I don't know. But maybe you need to think about what Lorena herself would do?"

"Turn Amelia against me. You think I should turn Amelia against her?"

"Maybe. But it seems a bit mean to Amelia."

"Yeah, you're right. I can't really use my daughter as a pawn."

We were silent for a minute then I said "Maybe you just need to think about what another bitch would do to her. For instance, what would Sophie-Anne do?"

"Huh. Interesting. What would Sophie-Anne do, do you think?

"I don't know for sure" I said, but then I told Sookie what she had done when she'd let slip the whole story of Sookie's kids.

"Right" said Sookie, "she is a bitch. OK. I'll have to think about that. But right now I just want to be cheered up."

I perked up a bit at that, and then remembered the whole no sex thing that was going on at the moment.

"What's going to cheer you up?"

"Fancy another movie?"

"What did you have in mind?" I asked, with trepidation. I wasn't looking forward to the answer, foreseeing a night of chick flicks. Oh God, I hoped it wasn't going to be one of those terrible movies, one that was going to make Sookie cry. She was bad enough pissed but crying would be worse. And if I wasn't allowed to touch her I wasn't sure how I could snap her out of that.

"Um, you'll think it's really dumb…." Sookie looked sideways at me like she was really nervous.

"No I won't." I probably would, but I'd just sat through a Tinkerbell movie so I couldn't really complain.

"Um, OK. Well it is really dumb but it always cheers me up. Dodgeball."

"Dodgeball?" I asked. That was not what I was expecting at all.

"Yeah, do you think it's dumb? It's just that, I don't know, it always makes me laugh. So I watch it when I need cheering up." She looked at me shyly.

"No, no. That's, um, fine. Dodgeball it is then."

It was actually pretty nice sitting there with Sookie giggling away next to me. A lot better than it would have been watching her cry. I'd seen the movie before, but she was right, it was funny. We managed to have a pretty fucking good night.

When the movie was over Sookie wandered off to get ready for bed, which I guess was going to involve sleeping. She changed into a large t-shirt because apparently she was 'feeling too crampy for waistbands' and got into bed. She kissed me goodnight and rolled over. Pretty soon she was asleep.

I wasn't. I wasn't sleeping in the fucking least. I may have got the message about no sex, but my cock was struggling with it. Right now, nestled into Sookie's butt, he really wasn't on board with this whole plan and sleep was not happening anytime soon. She sighed in her sleep and pushed her butt further into me. This was just getting worse. I briefly contemplated just rubbing myself against her, but I wasn't sure how Sookie would feel about the resulting wet patch on her back.

This wasn't really a problem I'd had before. Mostly I just slept with women once and that was that. The closest thing I'd had to a relationship had been keeping a regular fuck-buddy around, and none of those women were about to invite me for sleepovers when they had a period. I briefly wondered whether this was nature's way of making sure we didn't get bored with each other or some shit like that, but I wasn't convinced I'd ever get bored of Sookie.

So I lay there for a bit longer, listening to the rain which had now started up. Then something landed on the bed that startled me. I almost yelled, but stopped myself just in time. It was Bob. Bob who was fucking wet. Weren't cats supposed to be scared of the rain? He seemed to think it was a great fucking idea to sit on Sookie's head to go to sleep though.

I was worried he would wake her up, so I shooed him off. But he just jumped back. I tried again and the same thing happened. "Fuck Bob" I whispered "Get the message and fuck off." He just glared at me.

In the end I got out of bed, picked him up and threw him out of the room, shutting the door in his face. That cat was a fucking nightmare. How Sookie slept through that I'll never know.

The whole episode though had helped me calm down, and I got back into bed, making sure to keep my groin away from Sookie this time, and finally got to sleep.

**Thanks for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N Hello! I'm back. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the first chapter of this story. I'm very excited to be writing more of these characters because I just love them.**

**Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.**

SPOV

I must have slept heavily during the night because I was woken up by Amelia leaning over me in bed and whispering "I want my breakfast!" Right, time to get up then.

Amelia didn't seem to be keen on saying anything else to me and wandered off. I made a quick trip to the bathroom before heading to the kitchen. It was only by chance I noticed the dead rat in the hall before I stood on it. Bloody Bob. I hadn't even heard him yowl. At least this one was dead. And thankfully Amelia hadn't noticed it.

Eric appeared as I was scooping the rat into a plastic bag. He looked like he wished he hadn't seen it. "Did you hear Bob yowl?" I asked.

"No, but he did try to sleep on your head four fucking times, until I threw him out. How do you sleep through that?"

I shrugged. "I've had cats all my life; I'm used to them walking all over me at night." At least I now knew why I got the rat. It was Bob's way of saying he's better than Eric.

Eric eyed the plastic bag suspiciously. "Maybe if you stopped feeding him so much he might actually eat what he kills" he said.

"Yes, Eric. Because rat entrails smeared all over the hall would be so much better. Honestly." With that I started off to the front door so I could take the rat out to the bin outside. I could hear Eric say "I was just making a suggestion" behind me, but I didn't reply. Really the rat was the least of the problems; I still didn't know what I was going to do about Amelia, or Lorena.

We managed to do the whole morning routine with a minimum of talking. In a way I felt relieved when I dropped Amelia off at pre-school, as I couldn't take the tension anymore. Then I felt guilty for feeling relieved. Motherhood sucks sometimes.

After the drop-off I went back home and phoned Judith, as it was her day off work and I needed to apologise for running out of their place on Sunday. I should have phoned on Monday, but with the drama of the day, I just didn't think of it. I gave her a brief over-view of what had happened at the barbecue; she'd figured as much. She asked when Eric was leaving and I was vague about it, I said he might be staying for Christmas. I didn't want to tell anyone he was staying for good in case I jinxed it. I still wasn't convinced it was really going to work out.

Judith then had her own moan to me about Lorena, who was over the moon at the moment because her 'darling Caroline' was home, but Caroline was heading back to Sydney that afternoon and Judith was expecting Lorena to take to her bed by Wednesday afternoon. Caroline's whirlwind visits just caused more problems for the rest of the family really.

There wasn't much I could do to help with that, so I listened to Judith complain for a bit then we finished the call.

Eric had been hanging out in the living room with Felicia, watching TV. He came to join me in the kitchen. "I still haven't figured out what to do about Lorena" I said. Eric started to say something, but then we heard a dull thud followed by Felicia bursting into tears.

Eric looked guilty. "Shit, she's under the coffee table again" he said, and he took off back to the living room.

He came back a minute later holding a tear-stained Felicia, who he handed to me. "There's your mom" he said. "Mum" I corrected automatically. Felicia seemed to be over it and started smiling again.

"Sorry" Eric said to me. "She just keeps going under there for some reason. Is that normal?"

"Yeah" I said. "When Amelia could only push herself backwards she'd get wedged under the couch all the time." I sighed. She'd been so cute when she was Felicia's age. And really easy to deal with.

Eric patted my shoulder. "She'll get over it" he said. I bit back the reply I really wanted to make and just nodded instead. It wasn't his fault. Well not entirely his fault. But I liked him more than Lorena so I was making allowances.

"So what are we doing today?" Eric asked.

"St Luke's" I replied.

"St Luke's?"

"Mall. I need to buy new summer pyjamas for Amelia. Maybe a few other things. See what's on sale, at any rate. You can stay here if you like."

"Nah, I'll come. I could probably do with getting a few things if I'm going to be staying here. I'll just go to the Gap or something."

"Eric, its New Zealand. There's no Gap here."

Eric shrugged. "Well I can just order the stuff online then."

"Not from the Gap. They don't ship here. It's a loooong way. Did you not notice how long you sat in that plane for?"

Eric looked thoughtful, then a bit guilty. "Booze induced stupor was it?" I asked. Eric smiled. "Yeah, I thought so. Who did you drool on, Chow or Indira?"

He laughed, but noticeably wasn't confessing to anything. Probably it was both of them.

EPOV

I was starting to get a bit worried about Felicia's constant need to bang her head on a table leg. You couldn't look away for a minute. Surely they should make crash helmets for kids if they're going to do that all the time? Fuck, maybe this kid did have the defective Compton genes or something.

I felt really bad when she did it when I left her alone for a minute, but luckily Sookie seemed unconcerned, although she was still hung up on Amelia. And Lorena. Fuck. If I could just make it a little bit better for her then I'd feel better about my part in the whole sorry mess.

I wasn't sure that going with her to a mall though was going to be the best way of making it better, but I didn't want her wandering around by herself, worrying about the whole thing. I even let her tease me about the flight to New Zealand, but then I wasn't confessing to what it had really been like. Sookie didn't need to know I'd spent a lot of the time trying to get the phone number of one of the stewardesses. I wonder how different things would have been if she'd been more forthcoming?

So we took Felicia and went to a mall, which pretty much looked like any mall, except I didn't recognise any of the stores. Stupidly, I thought Sookie had a plan for what she wanted to get. I didn't realise this was like Pak N Save but on a larger scale. Apparently we were there to see what was on sale. Which could be any fucking thing in any store. After about half an hour I was pretty over it. I looked at Felicia in the stroller, she was over it too, but she was doing her best to amuse herself by taking her sock off and sucking it.

We'd ended up in some department store so Sookie could browse through kid's pyjamas. I tried to help, but Sookie waved me off saying 'go and look at the TVs or something'. So I did. That was entertaining for about two minutes. Then I wandered over to the beds. I wondered if Sookie would let me replace her bed with something bigger. A salesperson came up and tried to interest me in one. I was really fucking tempted as I was getting fed up with hanging around without a purpose. I could always tell Sookie I had bought it for when I moved out. I wasn't sure she'd buy it though, so I gave up on that idea and kept moving.

I found myself in the toy department next. It wasn't an area I'd ever paid much attention to before, but Sookie's house pretty much looked like a toy shop most of the time. There was more pink plastic crap than I'd ever seen in my life.

So I was wandering pretty aimlessly when I spied something at the end of one of the aisles. There was a display of dolls. Tinkerbell dolls. I stopped. Amelia would love one of those. I thought that it might, I don't know, cheer her up? Was that what you were supposed to do with sad kids? I didn't really know.

Just then Sookie appeared. "There you are" she said. "Oh, hey, a toy sale. I wonder if I should start Christmas shopping?" She was peering down the aisles and I could see this going all kinds of wrong if I let her loose.

"Um" I said "I was thinking that maybe I could get Amelia one of those dolls…" I pointed to the Tinkerbell doll.

"Oh, for Christmas, you mean?" Sookie asked.

"More for, I don't know, because I'm staying or something."

"Oh, Eric. You don't have to buy her affections. She already likes _you_." Sookie was starting to get pissed again.

"I dunno. I just thought it might cheer her up a bit. Maybe get her over the mood she's in?"

Sookie looked at me for a moment and I could see she was thinking it over. "Yeah, OK" she said "If you really want to. But you should probably get something for Felicia as well in the interests of being fair."

I looked at Felicia who was chewing a sock again. What the hell did you buy a baby, apart from more socks? "Uh, you might have to help me with that one."

Fifteen minutes later we were out the door, with me having bought the doll and a Winnie the Pooh bear for Felicia. "So" I said to Sookie" have you got what you needed?"

"Mmm. I might just go to Kmart though and see what their pyjamas are like…" and Sookie was off with me trailing along behind. Yeah, coming on this outing was a really fucking dumb idea. Although I soon realised walking behind her had one thing going for it; she does get a rather nice wiggle going when she's walking purposefully around. It's quite entertaining. Unfortunately I had to glare at the other fuckers who also noticed. How Sookie remains oblivious to the drooling morons staring at her I'll never know. It soon became obvious that I was better off staying by her side so these guys would get the idea and back the fuck off. I wondered how she ever managed to get through shopping without being constantly hit on before she had me.

After Kmart, we were apparently going to look for stuff I needed. I had to follow Sookie's lead on that one because really, I just wanted to go into one shop and be in and out in about five fucking minutes. Sookie was far more into buying me clothes than I was, and kept sending me off to try shit on. We went way past the five minutes. I did get a few things though, although I could see finding stuff the right length was going to be a problem in New Zealand. Sookie started muttering about there being a 'big and tall' shop in the city, but that sounded fuck-awful and depressing.

Finally I was allowed lunch and we headed to the foodcourt. I was briefly distracted by the display in the window of a lingerie shop and wondered if I should buy Sookie something to cheer up as well. However, Sookie noticed what I was looking at and all I got was a lecture on the unsuitability of demi-cups, so that idea was out the fucking window as well.

SPOV

It's just a bloody good thing Eric's tall or else I might have lost him in Kmart. He's worse than Amelia at wandering off sometimes. I don't understand how he can hold down a responsible job and still have the attention span of a goldfish. Even when we were shopping for him he kept eyeing the door, like he was tempted to make a run for it. About the only thing he wanted to buy all day was the Tinkerbell doll for Amelia, which was very sweet of him. Oh and he did seem very keen on a set of red lingerie, but I talked him out of that one. I don't really need to wear something that everything is just going to spill out of; it's a recipe for feeling fat.

Eric cheered up when he got lunch though. Sometimes he really is just like Bob.

EPOV

I was glad to leave the mall and get home. Sookie was still talking about having to start Christmas shopping, but I persuaded her to put that off for another day. I couldn't face it. Maybe I could get her to buy everything online, surely there had to be some places that would deliver in this country?

We walked to the pre-school to get Amelia in the afternoon. She held my hand and skipped along, but still didn't really talk to Sookie. Sookie still looked hurt. I hoped the cheering Amelia up plan worked.

I'd left the doll on her bed and when we got back to the house I followed her in.

"Oh! It's a Tinkerbell doll!" Amelia shrieked at an ear-splitting volume.

"Yeah, I um, bought that for you today" I said. Amelia threw herself at me, and then thrust the box into my hands demanding that I open it. That was easier said than done and I had to go and get Sookie to help. Why the fuck do they use so many bits of wire to tie the fucking thing in place?

By the time I got back to her room, Amelia had her Barbies spread out on the floor ready to meet Tinkerbell. She seemed quite happy, but it somehow hadn't led to a spontaneous reconciliation with Sookie like I'd hoped it would. I sat down on the bed.

"So…" I began "Um, you love your mom, don't you?"

"Mummy?" Amelia turned around to face me "I guess."

"Well, um, you know she's quite sad at the moment…"

"Look, Barbie! Tinkerbell has wings! She's a fairy and can fly..." Right, I wasn't really capturing her attention here. My distraction had worked a bit too well. I needed to come up with something else. I looked at the Tinkerbell doll.

"Your mom's a fairy." I said.

Amelia looked at me "Really?" she asked.

"Yep, definitely." Well at least I had her attention, but I worried that I might be digging a bigger hole for myself in the process.

"But where are her wings?"

"Um, she had to give them up, you know, so she could stay here and, um, have you and Felicia…"

"Well, she's not a real fairy then." Amelia turned back to the dolls.

"No, she definitely is. She told me." Amelia had believed all the other shit I'd told her about fairies, I didn't know why she was fighting me on this one.

"Really?"

"Really truly."

"But what kind of fairy is she?"

Oh. I'd exhausted my ideas. "Oh, well you'll have to ask her that. Except, maybe don't. Because you're not supposed to know she's a fairy. It's a secret and not everyone can know. So this is just between you and me, OK?" I hoped that would work, I had a sudden realisation that Sookie might not be so happy if she knew Amelia was being nice under the guise of her being a fairy. "But you know fairies like it when you're nice to them, so, um, just be sure to be real nice to your mom next time you see her. And hug her. But make sure you don't tell her that you know."

"OK. So she's really a fairy?"

"Yeah, a secret fairy."

"A secret fairy. OK then." She turned back to the game with her dolls and I left the room. Hopefully the next time she saw Sookie she'd be a lot nicer to her.

SPOV

I was folding laundry when Amelia came racing up and hugged me.

"Thank you, sweetheart." I said. Wow, I wondered what brought that on? Maybe Eric's plan with the doll worked?

"You're a fairy!" Amelia said.

"I'm a what?"

"A fairy. Eric said you were. So what kind of fairy are you?"

Oh. Right. Now I understood what was going on here. Eric had spun some story about me being a fairy. He really was full of shit sometimes. I opened my mouth, ready to deny being a fairy, but then I looked at Amelia. Her little face looked so hopeful. Was it really that bad if she believed in supernatural creatures? And believed I was one of them? I didn't know. I decided to err on the side of not breaking her little heart and worry about the rest of it further down the line.

"Yeah, I'm um, the underpants fairy" I said, folding a pair of Amelia's knickers.

She wrinkled her nose. "The underpants fairy? That doesn't sound like a real fairy."

"No, it is. Didn't you ever wonder how your underwear goes from the laundry hamper and appears back in your drawer, all clean and folded? Well that's me. I'm the underpants fairy."

"Oh, OK. Cool." I could see her thinking I wasn't as cool as Tinkerbell, but then I was her mum, I was never going to be cool full stop.

I bent down and hugged her. "I love you very much you know, Amelia."

"Yeah, I love you too" she said hugging me back. And then she was off again.

I went to hand Eric his clean washing. "So" I said "Did you realise I'm the underpants fairy?"

EPOV

I knew I'd been sprung as soon as Sookie asked if I knew she was the underpants fairy.

"Really?" I said. "And what does that job entail?"

"Oh, you know. I take dirty washing and magically it turns into clean underwear." She looked at me. "Did you really think she wouldn't spill the beans, Eric?"

I shrugged. "I hoped she wouldn't. I guess I should learn, huh?" Sookie nodded. "But do you think it's worked?" I asked.

"Yeah, I do. But it could have backfired totally. Imagine if she just decided to blame me for lying to her about it all her life. You were lucky there, mister."

"Nah, I 'm not lucky. It was a calculated risk."

Sookie hugged me. "You are so full of shit sometimes, Eric."

I looked down at her. "But, in a good way, right?" I asked.

Sookie narrowed her eyes. "Mostly in a good way. But let's not tell Amelia anymore weird and wonderful stories, OK?" I nodded. Sookie continued, "And seeing as you think you're so shit hot at this stuff, tell me what to do about Lorena?"

"Do you think she'll buy the fairy story?"

"No, I think we'll have to do better than that." Sookie stepped back and walked off. I hoped we figured out what to do about Lorena soon, as I really just wanted this whole fucking mess over with.

**I had intended this chapter to get as far as them sorting Lorena, but that will have to be next chapter. Still, every house needs an underpants fairy, right? Hands up if you're one too! Sigh. If only it was that glamorous...**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N So here it is - the plan to stop Lorena poisoning Amelia. Peppermintyrose, I hope you like it!**

**Disclaimer: Characters are not mine.**

SPOV

Wednesday morning I was out of bed early as I had to get moving to get myself to the hairdressers. It was hard wriggling my way out from under Eric though. I was getting addicted to having him sleep on me all night, and I was starting to think that maybe breathing was over-rated. I would have much rather stayed in bed and cuddled some more. He'd been surprisingly OK with no sex while I'd had my period. Maybe he did really like me?

Unfortunately a 9.30am hairdresser's appointment waits for no woman, and I had to get Amelia and Felicia out the door with me. My hairdresser's was near Tara's so she was having Felicia for me while I was there.

So I just about had everyone ready when Eric appeared from the bathroom. He may have been OK with the lack of sex, but I did notice he was getting increasingly gropey, as he pretty soon had me pressed up against the kitchen bench. He gave me a rather passionate kiss, then just stood there absent-mindedly rubbing my bum. He sighed, murmured "I really like these pants", and then wandered off to make coffee. I hadn't yet got myself changed to go out so I was wearing my old yoga pants. I couldn't figure out what was to like about them. Men are odd sometimes.

EPOV

This whole no sex thing was wearing a bit thin. I hoped to fuck Sookie's period was over soon. It's not that I couldn't go a few nights without sex, it's just that sleeping all night next to Sookie, who was so warm and soft and downright fuckable, just brought home what I was missing out on. I was almost glad I was showering alone because it was becoming pretty obvious I was going to have to take care of myself.

It didn't mean I didn't want to take every opportunity I could to touch Sookie though. She was wearing those stretchy pants again which hugged her ass really nicely, and felt really soft when you stroked them, almost as good as her actual skin.

Sookie apparently had an appointment at her hairdresser's so I was being left home alone. I'd offered to have Felicia, but apparently Sookie had a standing arrangement for Tara to watch her. It was probably just as well. Now she could crawl Felicia just seemed to have a death wish. You couldn't take your eyes off her for a fucking minute.

So after Sookie left I got out my laptop and started to do some research. I needed to sort out a car, as the hire one would have to go back, a phone, and a laptop. And I guessed I should probably look at places to rent, just in case. I hoped like fuck it wouldn't come to that, but it wouldn't hurt to at least give the appearance of not moving straight in with Sookie.

I also checked the trampoline website. It was the last day to order in time for Christmas. I couldn't remember if we'd come to a final decision on the trampoline. Oh well, fuck it, I thought. I placed the order. I'd tell Sookie it was on its way and worry about her reaction then. I was pretty sure she'd be on board. And of course Amelia would no doubt want Sookie to try it out too. I was really fucking looking forward to that part of Christmas day.

After a while I was getting fucking bored, and wondered how long exactly one person could spend getting their hair done. I went into the living room and stretched out on the couch and started flipping through channels. Surely there had to be something to watch?

SPOV

I love the hairdressers. It's like a mini-holiday. I just get to sit there and drink coffee and read magazines and chat to people who are really good at pretending to be interested in my life.

Only this time, I'd been stuck with a pile of Women's Weekly's to read. Ugh. There were only so many times you could read about whether or not Prince William was or wasn't going to marry Kate Middleton. Then there were the stories about various New Zealand 'celebrities' who'd done amazing things, like get married or have babies. Yeah, totally fascinating. After that you got the really trashy real-life stories.

I made it all the way through one of the Women's Weekly's while I was waiting for my colour to process, and then I gave up and went in search of something better, like a Marie-Claire.

Part-way through reading it though, I was struck with a thought, a real 'aha' moment. I knew exactly what Sophie-Anne would do. I couldn't wait to get out of there and get home to tell Eric, and then hopefully put the plan into place. That would fix Lorena.

So as soon as I was done, I headed back to Tara's to collect Felicia, who had apparently spent the morning trying to crawl under Tara's coffee table. Luckily Tara was pretty blasé about such things these days after having two kids of her own.

She had asked about Eric though that morning and I'd been vague about what was happening, I'd just said he was here for Christmas. I wasn't thinking beyond that. If I did I'd panic and I didn't think that would help anyone at this point. It felt really normal having him around, so as long as I didn't think about how fast everything was going I'd be OK. You could over-analyse this stuff, right?

So after I collected Felicia I raced home. The house was quiet and I wondered where Eric was. I found him asleep on the couch, with Bob curled up on his stomach. I was tempted to take a photo of the pair of them, but thought that might be a bit mean.

I pushed Eric's shoulder. "Hey! Wake up!" I said. "Nrgh" said Eric, but he shifted a bit and Bob jumped off in a huff.

"Wake up! I know what Sophie-Anne would do!" I was practically bursting with the need to tell someone. That got more of a reaction. Eric opened his eyes. "So, tell me, what would she do?"

I went over the plan with Eric and he helped me iron out a few details. He was actually quite devious. I made a mental note not to cross him anytime soon.

The next step was to actually put the plan into action. Firstly I called Judith on her cellphone, hoping that it was her lunch hour and she'd answer. I was in luck. I told her I was ringing to find out what they wanted for Christmas, it was a pretty flimsy excuse but she didn't seem to be that surprised.

After getting that out of the way I asked how Lorena had handled Caroline leaving.

"Oh, well, of course she's taken to bed with a migraine" said Judith. "And she wants me to pick up a prescription for her from the chemist, which is a pain in the bum as I'll have to race there after work before it shuts."

"Well I could do it if you like. I'm free this afternoon." I offered.

"Are you sure?" Judith sounded surprised, but I hoped the desire to get rid of the task would get her past any suspicions at my motives.

"Yeah, no problem. So it's the pharmacy in Mt Albert?"

That phase of the plan over with, I left Felicia with Eric and was out the door, well I was nearly out the door when Eric pulled me back for a kiss. "Good luck" he said. "Thanks" I replied. Then there was a thud and a wail and he had to go.

I got a fairly good park in Mt Albert, raced into the chemist and into the bookshop next door, and then was around at Lorena's flat in just over half an hour. "Oh, Sookie" she said, when she opened the door, obviously surprised to see me.

"Hi Lorena!" I said brightly. "I was talking to Judith and she said you were under the weather and needed a prescription collected, so I said I'd do it as I'm out and about this afternoon."

"Oh. OK. No kids with you?" she asked, moving back into the living room. I followed her in, shutting the door behind me.

"No, Amelia's at pre-school and Eric's looking after Felicia for me."

"Mmm, Eric, yes." Lorena sat down and I followed suit. "He's still staying with you then?"

"Yeah, until Christmas at least. He likes New Zealand."

"He's, um, _younger_ than you, isn't he?"

"Yes…" I said, not really sure what she was getting at.

"Mmmm. So was my Malcolm. He was very good looking too. "Lorena fixed me with a look I couldn't read. This seemed a really odd time for her to suddenly bring up the long-departed Malcolm, and as much as I wanted to know more sordid details, I couldn't for the life of me figure out what she was getting at, other than to suggest that Eric was too good for me and I was an idiot for thinking he'd be interested in a stupid old widow like myself.

"He seemed to be getting on very well with Calvin, at the barbecue" she continued. I was really lost now, but also really keen to just get on with my plan, which was at the risk of being side-tracked totally.

"Well I guess they're both, um, foreigners. Anyway, here's your prescription. And seeing as you're not well I also bought you a Women's Weekly, that is what you read, isn't it?" I handed both items over.

"Oh, yes, it is. Thank you Sookie" she almost sounded sincere.

"It's quite good, isn't it? The Women's Weekly? I guess you've been reading it for a while now?"

"Well…yes. I guess so."

"At one time everyone read it didn't they? So your friends, from the bowls club, they'd be the same?"

"I suppose they would."

"I was just reading one at the hairdresser's this morning. It was very good. I was particularly taken with the true life stories. You know, the ones about people who, oooh, have a baby when they don't know they're pregnant, or, um, survive an impoverished childhood and go to university. Give up drugs. That sort of thing."

Lorena just looked at me, so I continued. "I had heard" I said conspiratorially, "that they're always looking for more stories like that. And they pay _very_ well apparently. I did wonder if perhaps I should look into doing it."

Lorena wrinkled her nose. "You?" she asked.

"Yes, you know. Talk about Bill and how sad that was, how he had a disease he just couldn't fight, but that I've be able to draw the strength I need to go on from my daughters and how I'm going to make sure their father's legacy is not lost."

I could see Lorena thinking this over, but she didn't say anything.

"Of course" I continued "they might want to know more about his, um, childhood. You know, to really understand the whole story. So I did think that maybe I could get Sarah to help out and contribute. Give some insight into what Bill was like growing up. Goodness knows, she could use the money they'd pay."

Lorena still kept quiet but her eyes widened when I mentioned Sarah. Poor, gullible Sarah who'd say anything to anyone.

"But, you know what stops me doing it today Lorena?"

"What?" she asked, rather sharply.

"The worry that my children might read it, and, I don't know, somehow get the wrong information about me and Bill. For instance, did you know that Amelia thought I'd kicked Bill out?"

Lorena shook her head no. She wasn't owning up to anything I guess, even at this point.

"She did. Who knows where a three year old gets some of her ideas?" I looked at Lorena, I knew exactly where she got that idea and so did she. "I would do anything to make sure my children weren't fed lies about their father. And journalists, well, they will bend the truth to make the story more interesting, won't they?"

"Y-yes"

"It's terrible what they do. So salacious. And P is the current in-vogue drug for all the tell-alls isn't it? Ever since Paul Holmes' daughter and her troubles. Well, she's been all over the press. So for now I won't do anything. But it is _always_ an option."

I sat back in my chair. Lorena looked away and down. That was it; I'd finally got through to her.

"Right, well I must be going then. I hope you feel better soon Lorena. And no doubt we'll see you around at Christmas."

"Yes. Thank you Sookie. And give…give my love to Amelia and Felicia, won't you?" Lorena looked at me almost pleadingly. I knew that somewhere in there she loved them, as much as she could. But something in her had been broken long ago and she was never going to be a warm and loving grandmother.

"I will Lorena. You take care." With that I was out the door and back to my car. I couldn't wait to get home and tell Eric.

EPOV

Sookie had come back from the hairdresser's just about bouncing with excitement. She'd come up with a pretty awesome plan to warn Lorena off telling any more lies to Amelia and wanted to run it past me as a trial plan.

Sookie proved she could certainly out-bitch Sophie-Anne if she put her mind to it. I made a mental note to keep on her good side because I didn't want any of that directed at me. We went over the plan, she called Judith to get an 'in' with Lorena, and then she was off, leaving me with Felicia, who thankfully was going for a nap.

I'd already had a nap though, apparently. Sookie said she'd had to wake me up when she got home, but I'm pretty sure I only closed my eyes for a minute. Daytime TV in New Zealand was pretty fucking shocking really. I was at a bit of a loose end with Felicia asleep so I decided I'd get satellite TV installed at Sookie's while I was hanging around. I'd keep it as a surprise for Sookie. And maybe I could say it was a Christmas present. Yeah, she'd be fine.

It didn't take long to arrange though and then I was bored again. I'd been enjoying not working when I could hang out with Sookie, but when she wasn't around it was really fucking depressing. I guess this was a sign I needed to be working again. There had to be something I could do.

I thought maybe mowing the lawns would be a good idea. I went out to Sookie's garden shed and eyed the lawnmower. It wasn't electric; it was one of those ones with the stupid pull cord. I eyed it for a while before deciding that was just a recipe for a fucking disaster and going back inside.

I was getting as far as actually thinking that maybe I should vacuum when Felicia woke up. Yeah, I was totally fucking bored if stopping a baby from banging into a table was going to be the highlight of my afternoon.

SPOV

After I left Lorena's I made a quick stop at St Luke's then went and collected Amelia. I was so glad we were back to normal now, and it was actually lovely to have her chatter at me from the back of the car. Well, for about 5 minutes, then I lost the thread of her story and drifted off into patting myself on the back about Lorena.

When I got home Eric and Felicia were in the family room and he was sitting there watching her like a hawk. I'd tried to tell him he didn't have to watch her every single minute, but he panicked a bit when she knocked into things. She had to learn somehow though.

I waited until Amelia had given Eric a detailed run-down of her day in the sand-pit and wandered off to her room, and then I threw myself at him for a hug. "I did it!" I said "Ding-dong the witch is dead, and all of that! I am almost completely sure she won't be saying anything stupid to Amelia again. And next time Sophie-Anne picks on you, just tell me. I'll sort her out!"

"Yay, you. Well done." Eric said. He smiled and kissed me, it was a bloody good kiss. One you could really lose yourself in. It would have been better if we hadn't heard that dull thud and had to break apart. Maybe Eric was right about the crash-helmet?

I hadn't really planned anything for dinner, but Eric said he'd cook. I tried to say he didn't have to as he was a guest, but he just raised his eyebrows at me and I thought yeah, I guess he is past the guest stage. I wasn't really sure what he was now, but it probably wasn't a guest.

So he wandered around the kitchen for a bit opening things. I hovered and asked if he wanted help, but he said no. I went outside with the kids for a bit, and then came back. Eric seemed to have sorted out what he was doing, but he was juggling a few things. I really wanted to help. I wasn't so much worried about him ruining anything, but it's just that it's easier with two people. Well, that's what I told myself. I did once have a huge fight with Bill over the correct way to do a stir-fry, but I put that down to him more than me.

But Eric kept shooing me away, which was a bit annoying.

He was very pleased with his efforts though when he served us. He'd been through the freezer apparently and found some crumbed chicken schnitzels and the emergency mashed potatoes I never used. He'd also found the frozen peas and my emergency packet of gravy from the pantry. From what I could see in the kitchen he seemed to have made a huge mess and I wasn't quite sure how a dinner that was made entirely by heating things up had required quite so many dishes. But it was nice to have someone cook for me.

Amelia said she wasn't eating it until I pointed out Eric had cooked dinner. Then it all disappeared rather quickly. She even had gravy instead of drowning everything in tomato sauce. Maybe I'd just start telling her that Eric did all the cooking.

EPOV

Making dinner alleviated some of my boredom, although it took me a while to find something I could make, and then I had to battle with Sookie's microwave, which seemed to have a fucking mind of its own. Maybe I would just replace that.

She was very grateful, and kept telling me how lovely it was to have someone cook for her. I could tell she didn't really like surrendering the kitchen over to me though as she'd been hanging around the whole fucking time I was trying to cook like she was worried I'd burn the kitchen down, so at least I managed to produce something edible and prove to her that I was perfectly capable. God knows I'd had to feed myself a lot as a kid.

Sookie was in such a good mood since her visit to Lorena that I hoped we were back on track for the night. As we did the dishes she kept kissing me and just smiling. A lot. Surely this was going to be a good sign for bedtime?

Apparently not. When we got into bed, after having coffee in front of TV, she kissed me and said she was sorry about the no sex, but it wouldn't be too much longer and she'd be back to normal. I held in my sigh. I really wanted to tell her there was other stuff we could do, but I realised the other stuff was probably only for my benefit and I didn't want to make her feel like she had to. Not when she was in such a fucking good mood. So I settled for some kissing and being cuddled up against her for another restless night.

So restless in fact that I was awake a lot earlier than usual. The sun wasn't completely up. I considered going to back to sleep when I realised that it wasn't rain I could hear, it was the shower running in the bathroom.

**Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N Thanks to everyone for the lovely reviews! Lots of you were very excited that Eric was about to surprise Sookie in the shower at the end of the last chapter, let's hope she feels the same way!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

SPOV

As I felt someone get into the shower with me, I shrieked. Of course as I was shrieking I figured out who it was, but Alfred Hitchcock has a lot to answer for.

"Shit, Eric. You scared me."

"Sorry" he said, looking sheepish.

"What are you doing, anyway?"

"Showering."

"No, _I'm _showering. You're…you're gatecrashing." I loved my showers; if I got up early enough it was a little bit of time all to myself. I guess Eric didn't have that problem.

I looked at Eric. He looked hurt. "Fine, you can stay then seeing you're already in here." He perked up. One bit of him was obviously very perky and poking me in the side. "But I'm not having sex with you in the shower. There's not enough room. And I've got my period. And there's no condoms. So...just, no." There was barely enough room for the two of us just to stand there. I sighed. "Come on, switch places then and you can get under the water."

EPOV

The shower had seemed like a really good idea in my head, but now that I was squeezed in here with some sort of shelf sticking into my back and a very annoyed Sookie, I thought that maybe it wasn't going as well as I'd hoped. Sookie just kept sighing a lot and telling me she wasn't having sex with me. I was doing my best to keep my cock under control, but really, when she was right there, all naked and wet, what the fuck did she expect?

She did begrudgingly let me wash her, but she just really seemed uptight about the whole thing. I guessed we wouldn't be doing this again in a hurry. So I decided that I would make the most of this opportunity and I was happily soaping her boobs for the second or perhaps third time. I stepped closer to kiss her which meant that my cock was pressed up against her stomach. When I broke the kiss, Sookie gestured to my cock and said "I'm still not having sex with you."

I was getting a bit annoyed now. "OK, Sookie" I hissed "I get the fucking message. I can't fucking help it though if I find you attractive."

She just looked at me. I braced, expecting her to start yelling at me. But instead Sookie just grabbed my neck and pulled me down for a kiss. Oh.

And then she started stroking my cock, which was even better. She broke off the kiss and looked up at me. She had a look in her eyes which I hadn't seen since the night in my hotel room. Oh fuck, I thought, this is going to be fun.

Sookie brought her other hand up and started using that as well. This was really fucking great. I'd been so desperate for any kind of sexual contact from Sookie that I really wasn't going to last long at all. She was looking down, concentrating intently on her task. I was pretty mesmerised as well, it was hard to know where to look. Watching her hands work me was pretty hot, but the way she was holding her arms in front was pressing her boobs together and the action was making them bounce up and down. And there was water dripping off them. Fuck, that was really hot. I groaned, and then exploded all over us.

I looked at Sookie; she was smiling and seemed to be holding back the giggles. "Feeling better?" she asked, raising her eyebrows.

"Fuck yes, but I'd rather be feeling you." I pressed her against the wall of the shower and buried my head in her neck, kissing and licking. As I kissed my way across the spray of freckles on her collar bone, I slipped my hand between her legs. She ground into my palm. I wasn't sure what the rules were at the moment, but I felt sure this was allowed. Sookie moaned. Yeah, it was OK if I did that.

I started to move my whole hand just slightly, rubbing her clit. Sookie moved her hips and pressed against me. I could hear her breathing getting heavier. I looked at her breasts. Yeah, they were heaving now. Fuck, the water just made everything better. I took a nipple in my mouth. Sookie was really riding my palm now, one leg braced on the wall of the shower, her arms around my neck, my mouth on her breast. She moaned and then sighed out "Ohhh, and she came. I removed my hand and she pressed her whole body against mine.

"See? I knew we could have a good time. You just have to trust me with this stuff." Sookie laughed and slapped me on the butt.

"Yeah, yeah, but we better get out now before the hot water runs out. Come on." With that she moved past me and stepped out of the shower. I didn't want it to end, but I guess there was always tomorrow. I just wished I knew what it was that flicked the switch to turn her into a sex-goddess.

SPOV

I really had to stop molesting Eric every time I felt flattered he was attracted to me. I wasn't sure what it said about my self-esteem, but I couldn't help myself. He's just so gorgeous, and knowing he wanted me was a huge turn-on.

Judging by the smirk Eric had on his face as we were drying off, I guessed I had a new shower-buddy. I didn't know quite how that was going to work the next time I had to shave my legs, because there was sod-all room in there for the both of us.

It was a good thing we got through the shower when we did as Amelia was starting to stomp around, Felicia was yelling for attention and the van with the painters in it was pulling up the driveway.

I had no idea how Eric had found these guys, but they seemed to know what they were doing. Eric hung around and watched them for a while as they set about prepping the room; applying masking tape to the edges, removing the light switch and wall socket covers, sanding the surfaces. Yeah, they knew a lot more about this stuff than Eric did. I was pretty convinced this was the only room he'd ever attempted to paint.

I got everyone breakfast and Amelia ready for pre-school. I suggested to Eric that we take Felicia to Cornwall Park for the morning so we weren't hanging around with the paint fumes, so after we dropped Amelia off I drove us out there. It was nice, although Felicia couldn't be persuaded to crawl on the grass, she'd reach the end of the picnic rug then burst into tears.

I thought we could take her to see the sheep. I'm not sure what Eric was expecting when I said that, maybe a petting zoo? Anyway, we walked through the gate to one of the fields with me carrying Felicia and I said to him "Watch out for the sheep poo."

"What do you mean, sheep poo?"

"Sheep poo. There, see on the ground. All over it. The sheep must be around here somewhere."

"We're in the field with the sheep?"

"Yeah. I said we were going to see them."

"But we're in the same field."

"Well, they're not going to eat us. They're sheep." Honestly, did Eric really think I was going to feed him to wild animals? Sheep I could handle. Cows, however, were a different matter. We were viewing them over a fence if I had any say in the matter.

Eric still seemed confused. "It's a farm Eric. This part of the park is a real farm." I could tell from the look on his face that he couldn't figure out why there was a farm in a park in the middle of the city. He didn't say anything else though, but went back to picking his way carefully through all the sheep poo.

Eventually we found the sheep. It wasn't that hard, it's not like they can open gates and go up to McDonalds or anything. "Look, Felicia! Sheep!"

Felicia looked, then looked at me, then burst into tears. Eric was eyeing them distastefully. "Oh for goodness sake" I said "they're just sheep everyone. Cute fluffy sheep."

Eric pointed. "That one's quite big."

"Yes, but I don't think she's exactly going to come over and try to tackle you." I sighed. "Come on then, let's head back."

We trudged back through the field. I'd thought going to see the sheep was a great idea; obviously I should have brought Amelia with me because these two were a dead loss. I probably shouldn't have been secretly pleased when Eric's shout of "Fuck!" alerted me to the fact that he had managed to step in sheep poo.

EPOV

Mostly Sookie's outings were OK, but every now and again she got odd ideas about going to see fucking wildlife. First it was those feral swans, now it was sheep. I couldn't see the point in sheep, they were just…sheep. They stood around and ate grass. And pooped like there was no fucking tomorrow.

Felicia wasn't impressed with the sheep either, but at least she was being carried by Sookie. I was stuck trying to pick my through the field and of course stepped in sheep poop. There was so much of it that it was pretty impossible to avoid; most of the clear patches of ground weren't big enough for me to actually put my feet down.

Sookie laughed her ass off. I glared at her, trying to wipe my shoe on the grass once we were out of the sheep's field.

"Oh, Eric! Get over yourself. It is pretty funny."

I just glared at her. She came over to me and nudged me with her hip. "Come on, cheer up. We can go and get lunch at the restaurant if you like. I'm sure they're used to having customers who smell vaguely of sheep poo."

"Yeah, OK." Actually lunch did sound good.

SPOV

Eric cheered up over lunch and forgot his encounter with the sheep. I did make him leave his shoes outside though when we got home, I'd have to hose them down later. The painters were just packing up when we got there. They'd done a good job so far and would be back in the morning to do the second coat. Of course they told all of this to Eric and ignored me completely. Maybe it was because he had booked them, but I don't know. I'd forgotten how easy it was slip into the background when you had a man around.

Still, despite the morning's encounter with the sheep I was still in a good mood from dealing with Lorena. And possibly a tiny bit from the shower. So I put Felicia down for her nap and went into the kitchen to put the jug on. And then I said, in my best attempt at a Yorkshire accent, gleaned from years of watching Coronation Street with my mum, "Cup'o tea, love?"

But as soon as the words were out of my mouth I realised what I'd done. That was my thing with Bill, he was the tea drinker. Eric just sort of looked at me and frowned "What?" he asked. I was a bit flustered. "Oh, yeah, um, just did you want a drink? Coffee maybe?"

"No, I'm alright" he said. He was still looking at me oddly. I looked away and went about making myself some tea to cover up what I'd said. I guess it was bound to happen sometime, and it could have been worse. I could have called him Bill or something.

The rest of the afternoon was OK, but I was a bit on edge after that episode. I kept worrying it would happen again. Eric kept looking at me but didn't say anything.

The longer it went without me saying anything else though, the more I started to relax a bit. Surely it was just a one-off thing and I'd be fine?

We picked up Amelia and any chance I had of getting a word in edgewise rapidly disappeared anyway. She wanted to bake, so we made some chocolate chip biscuits while Eric watched Felicia. He wandered into the kitchen when I brought them out of the oven. "Oooh, cookies!" he said.

"You can't eat them yet, Eric, they have to cool down" Amelia lectured. With that she took off to her room.

"Just one?" Eric asked. God, he was worse than Amelia.

"Just wait a bit" I said. So he hovered for a while until I gave in. "Fine, but just don't burn yourself."

So he picked up a biscuit and bit into it, sending a shower of crumbs all over me. Some of them landed in my cleavage. Eric noticed and decided he was going after them. With his mouth.

Just then Amelia walked back in saying "Mummy, can you put this dress on my Barbie." Eric jumped off me like I'd burned him. Amelia just handed me the doll so I could put the dress on.

She didn't say anything else until I handed it back to her, then she looked at Eric. "Mummy used to do that with Felicia, when she came out of her tummy. She had big nipples. Ooh, can I have a biscuit now?"

"Um, yeah, sure" I said. She took one and left again.

I couldn't look at Eric. I just wanted to be out of there, so I left the kitchen and headed to my room.

"Sookie!" Eric called after me, but I didn't turn around. He followed me anyway, and was in the bedroom just seconds after I got there. "Don't be upset" he said.

I was fighting back tears. "I don't want to be upset, but it's just hard. I have this whole other life before you, I have kids that I've breastfed and pushed out of…places, and, I don't know, it's separate to you. It's separate to what I do with you. I just…I just…" I trailed off; I didn't know how to say what I felt.

"You just what, Sookie?"

"I don't know." I shrugged and hoped that was case closed.

"No, you've been odd all afternoon. Ever since that tea comment. This has just added to it. Tell me, please? Otherwise I'll think you'll mad with me again." He smiled at me.

"Oh, Eric. It's just really hard to explain. I just want you to think I'm attractive, not some person with leaky boobs and stitches. That's not what our relationship is about, you know?"

"Not really, you were grumpy with me for finding you attractive in the shower this morning."

"It's just complicated. I have this whole…history, I guess you'd say. Being a mother is a part of that, but my life with Bill is another bit. The tea thing, that was him by the way, well it was what I used to say to him. And up until now, I've been keeping it all pretty separate. But the longer you're here the harder it is. And it freaks me out. Because I worry…I worry…" Now I was crying, properly crying. Eric put his arm around me and didn't say anything. I stopped sobbing and pressed on "I worry that…I'll scare you off or something…" I started sobbing again. If anything was going to scare him off it was probably me crying, but I couldn't stop.

Eric just held me to his chest and let me cry for a while. Eventually I ran out of tears and reached for a tissue, blowing my nose rather noisily. I really wasn't doing myself any favours here.

I glanced at Eric. He smiled at me. "Feeling better now?" he asked. I shrugged. I felt a bit better. A good cry can be cathartic. And being held by Eric was intensely comforting.

"I'm not going anywhere you know" he said. I didn't say anything. "Honestly, if you can't scare me off with, I don't know, dead rats and sheep poop then I don't know what you'd have to use. Plus, who will help you eat all those cookies? I can't leave them all for Amelia. So come on, don't be sad. I fucking hate it when you're sad."

"Yeah, OK. Sadness over. Time to start dinner I guess."

"That's better. What is for dinner by the way?"

"If I stopped feeding you would you leave?"

"Nah, I'd probably just bring you rats until you started again."

I snorted. "Like you'd go near a rat."

"I might. Or maybe I'd just pay Bob in cat biscuits to get one for me."

I laughed. That sounded a lot more plausible. I kissed Eric. "Thank you" I said "Thank you for not being weird when I was."

"No problem" said Eric. With that I headed back to the kitchen to find something for dinner.

**So for those who don't know Coronation Street is an English soap set in Manchester. It is amazingly popular in New Zealand for some reason. Oh, and I meant to say at the end of the last chapter, but the Paul Holmes that Sookie mentions to Lorena is a well-known broadcaster who's daughter has battled P (meth) and he's spoken out against it. So Lorena would be aware of how much coverage there'd been of that.**

**And the sheep poo at Cornwall Park is pretty dire. **

**Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N Thank you all for the reviews, and a big shout-out to everyone who is adding this story to their alerts and favourites. It means a lot to me!**

**Oh, and if you got two alerts for this it's because I made a freudian slip and used Eric instead of Bob in one place - duh! Peppermintyrose pointed it out to me, and it kind of fits because basically, they're pretty similar guys at heart, but in the interests of not confusing you guys I thought I'd change it!**

**Disclaimer: Characters are not mine. **

SPOV

I woke up and tried to breathe, somehow I was pinned under Eric again. I moved his arm and started to drag myself out so I could get in the shower. None of this managed to wake Eric up. I was almost completely out of bed when I looked back at him, he was all sleepy and gorgeous. I thought I should probably let him sleep and just have a quick shower, but... I shook his arm. "Hey, are you coming to the shower?" I asked. He grunted, "What?"

"The shower. Are you coming?"

Eric opened his eyes "Don't know. Am I coming in the shower?"

"You are incorrigible. Well, if you're doing anything you'd better get a wriggle on." I got out of bed and started walking to the bathroom.

"There's wriggling? I love wriggling." Eric was right behind me now. I giggled. "What?" he said "No wriggling? That's just mean teasing me like that."

EPOV

Things were going well, not only was I allowed in the shower, I was actually being invited into it. I'd been a bit worried after Sookie went a bit weird the day before. I couldn't quite work out what had happened, at first I thought she was annoyed about the sheep, or maybe the painters, as there'd been a bit of muttering from her when they talked to me and not her.

Then Amelia caught me licking crumbs out of Sookie's boobs and Sookie was suddenly a fucking huge mess. I wasn't sure what I could do. She said she was worried I wouldn't find her attractive, but really, I wouldn't fucking be here if I didn't. And she keeps telling me no sex at the moment, so I'm fucking lost as to how to prove I find her very fucking attractive. There wasn't much I could do but hope it all blows over. And that her period ends fucking soon, because it was dragging on and I'd had another night of cuddling which was nice, but not very satisfying.

Still, I was allowed in the shower, so I was going to make the most of it. Sookie seemed a bit more into it this morning. It was still fucking cramped in there with the two of us, but she was less annoyed with me crowding her, although she did complain a bit about me 'hogging the water' when I tried to wash my hair.

While I was washing her I couldn't resist tickling her a bit. "Eric!" she said accusingly.

"What? You said there'd be wriggling." Yeah, the wriggling was good. She was so very close. And naked. And wet. Sookie was soaping my chest and I was hoping that she'd work her way further south and I could have a repeat of the previous day. But then I had another idea. I was pretty sure the whole 'no sex' thing really just meant no penetration. She hadn't minded what we'd done yesterday.

I put my hands under her ass and lifted her up, but I didn't quite judge it right and her shoulder knocked the shelf and a few bottles fell down on us. "Ow! Eric!" Sookie complained "What are you doing?"

"Enjoying my shower" I said and I pressed her back against the wall of the shower and kissed her. She kissed me back and her legs wrapped round my back. Sookie broke off the kiss and said "No sex, remember?"

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Just trust me, OK?"

"OK. But for God's sake don't drop me. I'm not light."

I didn't bother answering her. Sometimes it's best to just ignore her objections, because she can fucking go on. I bent down and put my face against her neck and started to move, so my cock was rubbing her clit. Sookie's arms tightened around my neck and her breasts pressed against my chest.

"Oh" she said. Yeah, it was just easier to show her what I meant. "Oh, Eric". I was glad this was working. It was working really fucking well for me. Sookie started bucking against me, and then she moaned into my shoulder. I came just afterwards.

"See" I said "showers are fucking fantastic."

"Yeah, yeah, you have all the best ideas. Now shove over so I can rinse my hair."

SPOV

Eric did have some good ideas, sometimes. And he was quite persuasive. Naked Eric was very persuasive, and got me to do all sorts of things, even if they involved being hit in the shoulder with a falling shampoo bottle in the process. His idea for that morning's shower was so good that I even almost stopped worrying about how much I weighed and how long he was going to be able to hold me up like that.

So once again I was feeling pretty happy when I emerged from the bathroom. Eric was very happy. He might have just had an orgasm, but he was still very keen on kissing me, and touching me, and rubbing up against me. He was really out for all the contact he could get.

I knew the painters were coming back that morning so I wasn't surprised when I heard a van pull up as I was clearing up breakfast, but when I opened the door it wasn't the painters who had turned up.

"Eric!" I called "There's a Sky van in the driveway."

"Yeah" he said, appearing at my side "They're installing Sky."

"Right, so you arranged this?"

"Um, yeah. Merry Christmas."

"This is a Christmas present?"

"Well, yeah. For all of us." He looked at me, waiting to see what I would say next. I wasn't sure what to think. It wasn't the worst present I'd ever been given, probably the Wii Fit Bill gave me for a birthday present was likely to take that prize, but it was a bit…presumptive? I felt like I should object to it. He wasn't living here permanently, after all. Was he? I wasn't really sure. And I didn't really have the energy to make a big scene. I gave up.

"OK. Fine. You know Amelia will be your best friend when she finds Playhouse Disney is back. We did have Sky at one stage, but I cancelled it."

Eric looked relieved. "Yeah, I saw there was an aerial already so they don't have to install that. I better go talk to the guy." With that he was off down the steps.

It was a very exciting morning for Amelia. She couldn't decide who was more interesting to watch, the Sky man or the painters. So she spent all morning running back and forth between the two. Eric had some long conversations with the guy installing Sky, and looked quite pleased when he got handed the remotes at the end. Remotes because apparently we had it installed in both the living room and the bedroom. Eric was obviously starting to feel quite at home. My inner bitch wanted to make a snarky comment, but the bit of me that liked Eric and liked him happy, shut her up. This was probably just as well. If I could out-bitch Lorena I was a pretty dangerous thing these days.

Not long after the Sky man left, the painters finished up too and handed Eric their invoice. I told him to let me know how much it was, but he said 'mmm-hmm' and wandered off, after putting it in his pocket. I would have to make a note to go looking for that later on.

Now the house was empty I asked Eric if he wanted to do anything today. He said that he really needed to get a few things sorted, like a phone. So I suggested St Luke's. He looked a bit less than enthused, but I pointed out with Amelia it wouldn't be a long trip.

As it was it was a mare trying to entertain her while Eric talked to the guy in the Vodaphone shop. I wanted to say to him 'it's just a phone, just friggin' pick one already'. I don't know what it is with gadgets. I think I last bought a cellphone 6 years ago, since then I've inherited a couple from Bill and that's it. The funniest bit was when I had to be his guarantor for the contract as he hadn't been in the country very long. It did make me feel slightly like his mother, but after being ignored by the Sky man and the painters, it was nice to know I was good for something.

By this stage Amelia was a bit scratchy and wanted to lunch, so we went to the Foodcourt. "Right" I said "I'm getting sushi. Do you want the same Amelia?"

But Amelia was looking at the McDonalds. "I want chicken nuggets and chips." She said.

I said "Really?" at the same time that Eric said "Sounds good." Eric looked at me pleadingly; I really was starting to feel like his mother.

"Fine" I said "You guys go and get your McDonalds, I'm off to get sushi."

"Yay" said Amelia "I wonder what toy I'll get…" she started to skip off with Eric following her. Yeah, they were best friends now.

We spent the rest of the afternoon hanging out at home, where we discovered that Felicia can take things off the coffee table now. And iPhones are apparently fairly drool proof.

I suggested a picnic dinner outside as the weather was nice and everyone was pretty full from lunch, so I made a bacon and egg pie and we sat on a picnic rug.

Amelia gave up eating pretty quickly and started to run around. Felicia eyed the edge of the picnic rug suspiciously. Eric helped himself to more pie. "So what is this again?" he asked.

"Bacon and egg pie. It's a Kiwi staple. You practically have to be able to make one before they let you leave home. It's like, I dunno, making scones or something. A hangover from our farming past. But we can have the leftovers for lunch tomorrow."

I looked at the pie dish. There was only the tiniest bit left. Then I looked at Eric who was looking a bit guilty. "What?" he asked.

"Nothing" I said giggling. So much for leftovers.

"I blame Bob." Eric said, pointing to where Bob was asleep in the sun by the fence.

I patted his arm. "Of course you do."

When it was bedtime, I could feel he was sort of hovering around me. I guessed pretty quickly what he wanted to ask. "Yes" I said "It's finished."

"Really?"

"No, it's fun to break your little heart." He looked worried. "I'm joking Eric! Now go and brush your teeth."

He raced off to the bathroom, and I dug out the surprise I had. The one I'd bought on my stop at St Luke's after going to see Lorena. I'd been on such a high I'd gone back for the lingerie, the stuff that Eric had been eyeing up in the window of the Bendon shop. Yeah, it had seemed like a good idea at the time to say demi-cups be damned. Now I was just going to have to suck everything in and hope for the best.

I put it on and arranged myself in my best pin-up girl pose, sitting back against the pillows with my arms behind my head to really stick my boobs out. I tried to tell myself that I hadn't bought this bra for comfort because really, it wasn't holding a lot in.

Eric came in the room. "Oh, fuck" he said. In a flash he was naked and in the bed with me. "How do you do that?" I asked.

"Do what?"

"Get your clothes off so quickly."

Eric grinned. "It's a skill. I've got many."

"Yeah, yeah. Go on then, show me some."

He definitely has skills. Very, very good ones. Pretty soon I was breathless and coming down from my first orgasm. Eric had removed my panties, but the bra was still on. I reached behind to take it off and Eric shook his head. "No, leave it" he said. Instead I grabbed a condom out of the drawer and handed it to him. He put it on and pushed into me.

"Oh, I've missed this" he said.

"Yeah, me too."

Eric kissed me and started moving. This was good; this was incredible. It didn't take long before I came again and Eric finished just afterwards.

He came back to bed after disposing of the condom. I was still wearing just the bra. "So, did you like your surprise?" I asked, gesturing to it.

"Yeah…" he said, trailing off.

"Yeah, but?"

He frowned. "It looks great, but it feels…scratchy. The tank top you wear, that's much softer. It's nicer when I touch it" he sighed "although best of all is just your skin. Maybe you should take it off now and I could see how that feels?" He reached behind me and unhooked it, pulling it down off my arms and tossing it aside. He ran his hands over both of my breasts. "Mmm" he said "that's a lot fucking better. I could do this for hours."

"What else can you do for hours?" Eric tore his eyes from my breasts and looked at me. "Well" I said "you're the one who said you had skills."

Eric grinned. "Don't fucking test me woman" he said, and then he took one of my nipples in his mouth and we were done talking for a while.

**Thanks for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Thanks again for all the lovely reviews!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

EPOV

Apparently, despite the fact it was Saturday, Sookie felt the need to get up at the crack of dawn before 'the kids start moaning'. So I had a choice of a sleep-in or a shower with her. I was actually going to go with the sleep-in, until I was lying there listening to the shower and I recalled how fucking great she'd looked wet and naked the previous two mornings and that propelled me out of bed. At least this time she didn't scream when I got in there with her. And she kept the lecturing to a minimum.

I came out of the bathroom to find Sookie chasing something around the hallway. "Watch out!" she yelled, as whatever the fuck it was raced past my foot.

"Shit! Is it a rat?" I asked.

"No, it's a skink. And they're bloody fast." She lunged and made a grab. "Got it."

"Skink?" I asked.

"Yeah, lizard. Here, look." She opened her hand and there was a tiny lizard with a big gash on its back.

"Where's its tail?" I asked.

"Oh, I think Bob's still playing with it over in the corner. I'll have to get that off him." With that she left, I guess to return the poor fucking skink to the wild. I looked over at Bob who, sure enough, was occupied patting something small and green across the floor. That cat was a fucking menace. I left him to it and went to make coffee.

When Sookie joined me in the kitchen she was still talking about the skink. "Bob hasn't had one for ages; I think he killed off most of the population when I first got him."

"Uh-huh"

"I guess he's trying really hard to come up with something good to show me I should get rid of you."

I looked at her. "So what?" I asked. "A skink beats coffee?" I handed her a cup.

"Dunno. Maybe if you're a cat." She grinned. "But Bob's pretty safe, so he shouldn't worry."

"What about me? Am I safe?"

"Yeah, you're very safe." She kissed me. "So, what do you want to do today?"

"Well, I should probably get a car seeing as the rental has to go back on Monday. So I might do that."

"Are you OK on your own? Because I'm not sure I'll be able to keep the kids amused in a car yard?"

"Yeah, it's a car. I'll be fine."

So I set out in the rental car to Greenlane Road, where Sookie said there were a few used car lots to look through. I parked on the road and started to look around the first one. I wasn't really sure what I was looking for, I thought about the car I had in the States. Probably nothing like that.

But I couldn't help myself from looking at some of the sportier models. No harm in just looking, right? I was peering in the window of some tiny sports car when one of the sales guys approached, fixed grin in place.

"She's a beauty, isn't she, mate?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah. OK. But not really what I want." I said straightening up.

"Oh, well, what are you looking for?"

"Um. Something bigger." I thought about Sookie's car and the amount of stuff that was crammed in there. "Something I can fit, um, car seats in."

"Right, so how many kids have you got?"

Without really thinking I said "Two", but as soon as the word was out of my mouth I thought no I don't. Sookie has two kids and I'm just Sookie's…what? Homestay? I didn't fucking know. All of a sudden it all felt fucking unstable.

"Yeah, I need to get going" I said to the guy and I took off back to the rental car. Fuck, I thought, I really don't know what I'm doing here. I'm buying a car so I can drive Sookie's kids around and play dad. All of sudden it hit me how fast this was all going and I felt like I couldn't breathe.

I drove without really having a plan of where I was going. I ended up somewhere called Ellerslie according to the GPS. And then I saw it, one of those stupid bars they deck out like an English pub. Yeah, that would do. I'd have a drink and it would help.

I parked and went in. They were just opening up as it was only 11 in the morning. I went up to the bar and ordered bourbon. While they were pouring it I looked around. I was completely out of place; everyone else here was part of a family who looked like they'd come for brunch. My drink was placed in front of me and I paid for it, but I couldn't bring myself to have any. It was suddenly so obvious, I was a complete fuck-up. No one else was here to drink themselves stupid before lunch. Just me, because I'd had a fucking panic-attack over buying a car with an actual backseat.

I realised that Sookie was right. I was fucked. I stood there for a few minutes waging an internal war between the part of me that wanted to drink because I was so fucked anyway it didn't matter, and the part of me that didn't want it to be true, and knew drinking would only prove it.

Fuck, I thought, this morning is just going so fucking badly. And it's not even lunchtime yet.

I tried to think of what would break me out of this. All I could think of was Sookie. Sookie would make it better.

So I ran back to the car and headed back to her house.

SPOV

I was sitting on the deck, watching Amelia and Riley chase each other round, when Eric suddenly appeared behind me. "Oh" I said "How did the car hunt go?"

He didn't say anything but sat down next to me and pulled me to him. And then he buried his face in my neck and started nuzzling me, while one hand started stroking my breast. I tried to wriggle away from him a bit but he just held me tighter. "Oh fuck, Sookie" he murmured "Can we go to bed?"

I managed to pull back a bit. "No!" I said "I've got to be around to watch the kids. Halleigh called in her favour from Monday so I've got Riley as well. What happened anyway?"

Eric didn't say anything, but just stood up and walked inside. I was getting a bit worried now, as he was just acting weird. Well, sort of weird. He'd been like this before I guess, on the night he sat on the deck drinking. Shit, I wondered, had he been drinking?

I grabbed Felicia and went after Eric; he was in the living room pacing back and forth. "Eric, please tell me what's going on, because you're scaring me at the moment" I said, placing Felicia on the floor.

He stopped pacing and ran a hand over his face. "I just…freaked out a bit."

"You freaked out over buying a car?" I was trying to be calm. Someone had to be.

He sank down onto the couch. "I freaked out over buying a car that I could fit car seats in. I realised that this is going really fucking fast and all of a sudden we're in a relationship, and you have kids, and yeah…"

I sat down too. "So, what? You don't want to be in a relationship with me? Because of the kids?" My eyes suddenly felt very hot but I wasn't going to let the tears fall. Not yet.

Eric turned to me. "I do. I'm just…scared. I'm so fucking scared that I could ruin it all. I don't know if I'm cut out to be around kids. And I did nearly ruin it today. I went to get a drink, which I didn't have, but I really fucking wanted it. Which is…wrong, don't you think?"

I wanted to be polite, but I guess this wasn't the time. "Yeah, well it's not right at any rate."

"Yeah. I knew it. I'm a complete fuck-up".

I moved so I was sitting next to him, and I stroked his arm, but he wouldn't look at me. "Eric, it's OK." He just sat there. "Eric, look at me." He did, but he didn't really want to make eye contact.

"Eric, I think the fact that you know it was wrong is something. No one's perfect. I don't think anyone expects you to be perfect. It'll be OK. But if you want out…then just say so now, because I won't blame you if you want to walk away." Now I didn't want to make eye contact, I was terrified that he might take the out I'd just given him.

"Oh Sookie" Eric pulled me onto his lap "I don't want out, I was just so fucking scared that I didn't know what I wanted." He kissed me and I momentarily forgot to be worried.

"Yeah, I'm scared too" I said "it is scary." Eric looked at me. "What? I'm allowed to be scared."

He looked thoughtful, "Yeah, I guess I just figured that you'd done this before so it would all be, I don't know, normal for you."

"I've never done this with you though. With you and two kids and everything, it's incredibly scary. Why did you think I was crying the other afternoon?" I looked at him and he shrugged.

"Yeah, I guess I just didn't quite get…scared, from you worrying that I didn't think you're hot."

"Well, see. That's one of the things that scares me."

"Huh. I have no fucking clue why. I gave up my sleep-in and everything this morning just to see you in the shower."

I slapped his shoulder. "You are dreadful. Right, I'd better go and make sure Amelia hasn't bossed Riley to death." I stood up. "Can you get the Sky remote back off Felicia, I don't know if that's drool-proof."

I walked out of the room to the sound of Eric saying "Shit Felicia, do you have to chew everything?"

The rest of the afternoon went OK, but Eric was a bit quiet. I wasn't sure if he was processing, or still freaked out. I wanted to help him, but I didn't know what to do. I didn't want to pressure him. I got him to mow the lawns (once I got the mower started for him) just to give him some space, but even after that we were still circling around each other, both waiting for the other one to do something to break the tension. I realised I was going to have to talk to the only guy I knew who had a string of solo mothers as girlfriends, my brother, Jason.

So after dinner I left the other three watching Finding Nemo on the bed and rang Jason, hoping that the prospect of getting up for milking in the morning had put a stop to him going into town for the night. Lucky for me he answered.

"Jason, it's me. Sookie."

"Shit. Sookie! How are you?"

"Good, how are you?"

"Busy. Shit I've been meaning to call you, but I've been flat out."

"Yeah, how's the, um, herd?" I asked, which sent Jason into a long spiel about the calving season they'd just had. I knew nothing about cows. They freaked me out. This was actually partly Jason's fault.

When I was 16 I went to a Guy Fawkes's party that a mate of a mate of his was having on a lifestyle block out by Kingseat. Jason's friend Hoyt drove us in his Toyota Corolla (or the 'faggoty-homo FXGT' as Jason liked to call it). So Hoyt parked in a field and we sat around a bonfire with a whole bunch of other kids from South Auckland. I got stuck talking to some girl called Lisa who's main complaint seemed to be that her boyfriend wouldn't let her into his Honda CRX if she was wearing trackpants because that wasn't classy enough. Because a guy with a mullet knows all about class.

After a while though we realised that where Hoyt's car was parked was in a field which also housed some cows. And they were loving that silver hatchback like there was no tomorrow. Jason and Hoyt tried to shoo them off, but pretty much gave up after a while and went back to drinking and dancing around the bonfire while singing along to Bliss. It wasn't long before Hoyt collapsed, so it was obvious he wasn't driving us home. Jason wasn't in a fit state either, so it was me. This meant I would have to go and get Hoyt's car and drive it over so we could load him into it. And Jason refused to help me shoo the cows away.

They were freaky; all standing around licking the car windows like it was a giant popsicle. I waved my arms about and they ignored me. I tried again and they looked at me, which was worse as I wasn't sure that they weren't going to lick me or something.

After a while I gave up and went back and yelled at Jason until he came to deal with them. He'd just been standing there watching me and giggling. I wasn't impressed with him or Hoyt. I was almost happy the cows had snapped the wing mirror off the car and covered the windows with drool, until I remembered that I would have to drive it back to Papatoetoe in that state.

I'd like to say it was the last time I ever went out with Jason, but I distinctly remember spending the next New Year's Eve cleaning Hoyt's mother's kitchen after Jason forgot to put the lid on the blender while making his third batch of homemade Bailey's Irish Crème for the night. When I looked back at the guys I knew, it was no wonder Bill seemed such a good catch when I first met him.

Jason seemed to be winding up his calving anecdotes, thank goodness, so I switched back into the conversation. "So, Jason, are you still seeing…um…Crystal?" Jason had a string of girlfriends, so it was hard to keep up some times.

"Yep, we're still together. It's been, over a year now, eh? But her dad, Old Billy Heremia, he still doesn't fuckin' like me. I think it's 'cos I'm Pakeha, eh?"

"Really? It's not just because, you're…you?" I know I shouldn't be mean, but old habits die hard. There was silence for a bit, and then Jason burst out laughing. "Yeah, good one Sook." Luckily, it was water off a duck's back with Jason.

"So, does Crystal have kids?" I was pretty sure she did, but I thought I would ask.

"Yep, three kids. Tama, Aroha and Wayne".

OK, I had to ask. "Wayne?"

"Yeah, his dad is an Aussie. And I think Old Bill even likes him more than me."

"Oh, wow." Normally everyone loved Jason; rating below an Australian deadbeat dad was really bad.

"Yeah, I think it's 'cos he left his flat-screen behind when he went back to Aussie, eh?" Jason laughed.

Right, well I guessed I should press on with what I wanted to know. "So, is it weird, you know, that she has kids?"

"Nah. Why?"

"I just wondered if it was, you know, odd."

"Yeah, nah. Never really think about it. Are you trying to hook up with someone?"

"No. Yes. Maybe. I don't know. I just wanted to know how you…felt about the fact that Crystal comes with a whole ready-made family."

"I'm kinda used to it. The kids are pretty great. Apart from Wayne, he's a bit psycho, eh?"

I know I shouldn't have expected too much, but I wasn't getting a lot from Jason. I guess the fact he floated through life didn't exactly lead him to having deep philosophical ideas about anything.

"So did you ever discuss it with Crystal, like did she ask you how you felt about the kids and stuff?"

"Nah. But she's pretty choice, eh? And I knew she had kids, so if I want to be with her, then I guess I must be alright with the kids. Otherwise I would have kicked her arse out by now. Especially after Wayne set that fire out by the milking shed…"

Jason went on to relay all the odd shit Wayne had done. He must really like Crystal if he was willing to put up with that.

So I asked him if he was coming for Christmas, and he said no, he was going to hang out with Crystal's whanau in the hope they'd come around. I knew I shouldn't, but I felt relieved. Jason was a bit in your face. And he mostly smelt of cows these days.

So we ended the call, promising to catch up again at Christmas. I felt a bit let down, I had been hoping, rather vainly I guess in hindsight, that Jason would have some words of wisdom I could pass on to Eric, something that might make him suddenly feel OK about me having kids. But he didn't.

I walked back in the bedroom and looked at where Eric was sitting with Felicia on his lap and Amelia sitting next to him. It suddenly hit me that maybe what Jason had managed to do was give me some advice. He'd said that Crystal knew that if he wanted her he wanted the kids too. So maybe I had to do that, just let Eric choose, and hope he did pick all of us in the end. He may have doubted himself, but he was doing really well with them, and I just hoped he'd realise that.

So I took Felicia off to bed, and, when the movie was finished, did the same with Amelia. Then I sat on the bed next to Eric and waited to see what happened next. He was still quite withdrawn. He leaned over and put his head on my chest and we sat like for a while, with me stroking his back. I tried not to see it as a bad sign that, for once, he wasn't trying to get me naked as soon as we were alone.

After a while, he sighed and said "I think you're right."

"About what?"

"About…me. I need to do something. If I'm not going to fuck-up. So I don't have to find a fucking bar every time I feel shitty. I guess it never fucking mattered before, and now it does."

"OK" I said "Yeah, we can do that." I guess that was Eric's way of saying I mattered, that we mattered. I wasn't going to press for more.

We sat like that for a bit longer, and then Eric started kissing my cleavage and it wasn't long after that before we were both naked.

**Right, so few new terms and words in there!**

Lifestyle block - basically it's not an actual farm, just some land that people own on which they might have a few animals or maybe lease out a field.

Bliss - it's the classic Kiwi drinking song, by a band called Th'Dudes. Most of the lyrics go "Drink yourself more Bliss. Forget about the last one. Have yourself another." And so on.

Papatoetoe - the common pronunciation is Pap-a-toe-ee-toe-ee, but more correctly it's Pap-a-toy-toy.

Heremia - pronounced Here-a-my-a

Tama - pretty phonetic, its Tar-mar.

Aroha - A-row-har. Means love, or heart.

Pakeha - pronounced par-key-har. It's the Maori word for a European New Zealander, and is now used fairly widely, even by non-Maori speakers.

Whanau - pronounced far-now. The Maori word for family. Again it's in common usage these days in New Zealand.

And you'll notice that Jason says 'eh' a lot. It's a bit different to the Canadian eh, we say it like the letter a. And the question marks are because New Zealanders often have a strong rising inflection, so our voices go up at the end of a sentence and it sounds like a question. Also we do say 'yeah, nah' which other nationalities complain about because they don't know if we're actually agreeing or not.

And I don't speak Maori, so my pronunciation guides are not necessarily strictly correct, but they reflect how the words are more commonly said.

**Thanks for reading**!


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N Nothing much to say other than huge love and thanks to all who are reading and enjoying this!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

EPOV

I felt as miserable as fuck for most of Saturday. I'd come so fucking close to losing it all and the knowledge was like a lead weight in the pit of my stomach. I didn't know what I could do to make it go away. Although bizarrely, Sookie's idea of me mowing her lawn did at least keep my mind off it for a while. It was all just fucking horrible.

I didn't know what to say and Sookie was wary of me. I'd catch her watching me as if she was waiting for me to run out the door or something. Part of me did want to run, rather than face the fact that I had a serious fucking problem. But most of me realised that no matter how shitty I felt at the moment, I'd feel 100 times worse if I didn't have Sookie.

After the kids were in bed I enjoyed just being held by Sookie. She was so lovely. I knew then that I had to do something to fix whatever was broken in me, so I wouldn't hurt her. I couldn't have lived with myself if that happened.

When I woke up the next morning she was lying there, just looking at me. "Hey" I said, and she smiled. "Morning" she said.

Despite the smile, I could sense she was feeling a bit apprehensive. "So are we good?" I asked.

"If you're good, then I guess I'm good. Are you? Good?"

"Very good. No more freaking out."

"Well then we're good" she said. I lent over and kissed her deeply. I was starting to roll her onto her back when we heard Amelia's voice at the bedroom door "Mum? Mum! I want my breakfast!"

Sookie sighed. "I guess we slept in. I better go. You hit the shower and I'll have one after breakfast", with that she was off to deal with Amelia. I lay there for a minute, willing my erection away. Fuck. There ought to be rules about kids disturbing you on a Sunday morning.

By the time I arrived in the kitchen it looked as though breakfast was in full swing. Amelia was munching on some toast and Sookie was trying to pry Felicia's hand out of her mouth so she could spoon some breakfast in there instead.

"Coffee?" I asked Sookie.

"Please!" she said, making another attempt at getting some food into Felicia. For a moment I thought about telling her my trick with the teatowel, but then decided that if she hadn't figured it out for herself by kid no. 2 she was never going to, so I left her to it.

After everyone was fed, Sookie went off to shower. I wanted really badly to gate-crash, but I'd been asked to keep Amelia from annoying Felicia too much. It was a lot harder than it sounded. Now that they were both mobile, you needed eyes in the back of your head. I looked away for a minute and when I saw them again, I caught Amelia hauling Felicia rather forcefully out of a corner.

"Don't do that, Amelia" I said.

Amelia looked at me "What?" she demanded.

"Don't pull your sister around like that. It's not nice."

Amelia looked at me, blinked, and then burst into tears. Shit, I'd expected her to argue, not do that. I wasn't sure what to do. "Um, don't cry Amelia" I said, which just caused an increase in the volume of her wails. Felicia was staring at her curiously from her spot on the floor.

Just then Sookie appeared. "What happened?" she asked. I looked at Amelia, who was red-faced and snotty. "Eric said I was MEAN!" she sobbed.

Sookie looked at me. "I, um, told her not to pull Felicia around is all." I was feeling like a total fucking louse about now for making a small girl cry and wished like fuck I'd never intervened.

Sookie turned back to Amelia "And did you?"

Amelia sobbed "I won't do it again!"

"Well you shouldn't have done it in the first place" said Sookie. "Come on, let's go to your room and calm down." She marched Amelia off and I wasn't sure whether I was in trouble or not. Fuck.

A few minutes later, Sookie came back. "Don't worry" she said, patting me on the arm. "She does that to me all the time; she's a complete drama queen. I'm afraid it just means you've lost your special status."

"Special status?"

"Yeah, he-who-can-do-no-wrong. Now you're just, I don't know, plain old Eric. Stink for you really."

Sookie looked delighted at my misfortune; I was just pleased as fuck I wasn't in trouble with her. "So, she's OK, then?" I asked. I wasn't really convinced I hadn't done some irreparable damage to her self-esteem.

"Oh, completely. She's spreading Barbies all over her room as we speak. I just gave her a small talk about being nice to Felicia and she's fine. It was always going to happen as soon as Felicia could move. Amelia's just feeling a bit territorial."

"But she was so upset with me."

"Yeah, well she wants to guilt you into feeling bad about telling her off." I looked sceptical, and Sookie continued "She's 3 Eric! She's as selfish as they come, all 3 year olds are."

Are they? I thought. "How do you know this stuff?" I asked Sookie.

"Dunno. Just figure it out I guess. Amelia is my first 3 year old, but I'm almost completely sure she's not unique."

Sookie just seemed so confident about the whole thing; I had a hard time believing that she was really making it up as she went along. Maybe it just came naturally to her? Like she was some kind of mother-savant or something? She was fucking awesome at this stuff.

"You should have more kids" I blurted out, instantly regretting it.

"What?" asked Sookie, sounding eerily like Amelia had earlier.

"Um, I was just saying you should have more kids, because, you know, you're, um, good at this stuff…"

Sookie gave me an odd look. "Yeah, maybe. But not right now, the two I've got drive me bananas most of the time. Right, well shall we take Felicia outside and see if she'll crawl on the grass?"

We'd only been outside a short while when Amelia appeared at my side. I braced myself in case she was going to cry again, but instead she just said "Eric, can you kick the ball to me?" She really was over it, I guess Sookie was right.

Later on while Felicia was napping, Sookie went out to buy some groceries. I offered to go with her, but she said it was actually a treat to wander around by herself for a bit. I guessed that wander was the important word there, and she'd be spending fuck knows how long checking out specials on washing powder and diapers. Sounded like torture to me. I guessed that the whole incident with Felicia and the shoe hadn't put her off leaving me in charge of the pair of them, so I should at least be grateful for that, but I was still a bit wary of Amelia after her tears that morning.

She was fine though, and when I told her to be quiet because her sister was asleep her lip wobbled a bit, but she didn't burst into tears, so that was a huge fucking improvement. And more importantly she stopped yelling. It was actually quite gratifying to be in charge. Even if I was just in charge of a 3 year old, a sleeping baby and a pile of plastic…ponies. Yeah, that was fucking worse than the Barbies.

SPOV

Sunday turned out to be a much better day than Saturday; Eric was a lot more fun when he wasn't freaking out. Although Amelia crying when he told her off threw him for a loop. Up until now she's treated him like an honoured guest, like she does Uncle Calvin. Now I guess he's been here for so long he's just become another adult figure, one she wants to manipulate to get her own way.

I got to go to Foodtown by myself which was nice, in a sad way. This is what motherhood reduces you to; you're happy to do groceries if you don't have to bring the kids with you.

When I got back everything seemed to be going OK. Amelia had her My Little Ponies all over the floor and Eric was keeping Felicia well away from them. Guess he'd learned his lesson there.

He came out to help me unload the car, and then helped me unpack everything. He managed to stay quiet until I was trying to work out where to fit six cartons of orange juice into the pantry and was muttering to myself as I moved things around. "So, they were on _special_ were they?" said the voice behind me.

"Shut up" I said, and went back to restacking the crackers to make room. Eric just laughed and laughed. Sometimes he thinks he's so funny.

I was putting away some muesli bars when Eric said "Hey, did you know that Amelia can read?"

"No she can't"

"Yeah, she can. She wanted a muesli bar before and I couldn't find the strawberry ones, only blueberry, but she picked it out no problem."

I pulled out the boxes and put them side by side. "Look at the pictures" I said "See, they show the fruit on them. She just looks for the picture of the strawberry."

"Huh. I never look at the pictures."

"Yeah, well. You can read. You don't need to."

"That's pretty fucking clever."

"I guess so. It works for her. She has all kinds of tricks up her sleeve that kid."

I figured that Amelia and Eric were friends again when I found them sitting on the deck with cartons of chocolate milk I'd just bought and a bag of biscuits between them.

I was glad that they got on so well together. It hadn't hurt Amelia to find out that Eric was perfectly capable of being the adult in charge this morning. But it was nice that she wasn't one of those kids who got all jealous and upset with their mother's boyfriend.

Wow, I thought, is he my boyfriend? I thought about it for a bit more. He was a man who lived here, who slept with me, who was good to me and helped me with my kids. I guessed that made him my boyfriend. Yay for me, I had a boyfriend again. It was nice. But I wouldn't tell Eric that's what he was. I didn't fancy him freaking out on me again. If he seriously wanted to go and get drunk I couldn't have physically held him back if I'd wanted to.

I'd bought steak while I was out (it was on special, but I wasn't telling Eric that and setting off another round of laughter), so I suggested we have a barbecue. Eric was obviously feeling more confident this time because he decided he wanted to concoct a marinade for it. I said fine, and tried to only hover a bit while he was doing it. I thought I was being really sneaky, and just glancing over occasionally while I was peeling potatoes, but Eric said "You just can't help yourself can you?" and grinned at me.

"What? I was just wondering if you were finding everything you needed."

"Yep, I'm good" and he carried on.

I went back to my potatoes. I was going to have to be less obvious next time.

Dinner was good, the marinade was very tasty. Eric refused to tell me what was in it, but I had my suspicions. He looked very pleased with himself though, so I didn't press. I figured he could have his moment of glory, especially as, for once, Amelia was eating steak and the not the sausages I'd make Eric cook for her. I don't know what it was about my cooking that she hated, but Eric's was obviously better in her eyes.

EPOV

Sookie had let me loose with the steak at dinner time and thank fuck I hadn't stuffed anything up. I'd caught her watching me like a hawk in the kitchen, although she denies it completely. She's so fucking obvious though, I can feel how much she wants to come over and butt in. When I called her on it, she got all defensive and blushed. It's really fucking amusing.

After dinner she bathed the kids and put them to bed while I cleaned the barbecue, which wasn't my favourite task at all, but, as Sookie pointed out, if it wasn't cleaned now it wouldn't be ready to use next time.

When that was finished I went and sat on her bed and flipped through channels. There wasn't much on. I finally managed to find something halfway decent to watch, some English show about cars. The presenters seemed to spend a lot of the time doing fucking weird shit. It was quite entertaining.

Sookie walked into the room while I was laughing at something. "Oh" she said "I see you found Top Gear."

"Yeah. You were quick getting Amelia into bed tonight."

She shrugged and sat down next to me. "We did The Cat in the Hat. I read really fast. And kind of skipped over Thing One and Thing Two."

"Huh. OK."

"So the show's good then?"

"It's alright."

"Because your eyes are pretty glued to the screen."

I looked at her. "No they're not."

"Yep, they were. Shame really."

"Why is it a shame?"

"Well I had thought we could do something else, but, if you're not interested because it's more interesting to watch them throw a caravan off a cliff, then that's fine…."

"What something else?" I was starting to get curious now. If she was being this coy it had to be something fucking good.

"Oh, no. It doesn't matter. You watch your programme." She snuggled into my side. And started stroking my cock through my shorts.

"Well, it's not that good…" I said, looking at her hand.

"Mmmm, well, if you really wanted to know. I thought maybe you'd like a blowjob, but, you know…Top Gear's on and…"

I clicked the TV off. "No it's not." I said.

"Well, if you're really sure. Because I'd hate to distract you from TV."

"It's OK. I can live with being distracted." I grinned at Sookie and she smiled back. Then she undid my shorts and pulled them off, followed by my boxers.

Fuck. If I'd known I got this reaction from cooking steak, I'd do it more fucking often. Sookie kissed up one thigh, then up the other. Then she started using her tongue across my balls. I sank back into the pillows I was leaning on. Sookie was so fucking good at this. She licked me from base to tip several times, then finally took my cock in her mouth and swirled her tongue around before beginning to move up and down. I looked down at her. I could watch this all fucking night, although she was doing amazing things with her tongue and I wasn't sure I could last that long.

Pretty soon I wasn't sure I could last much longer at all. "Sookie, Sookie is it OK if I, uh..."

"Mmm-hmm" she said, without stopping what she was doing. That felt fucking outstanding and I groaned "Oh fuck Sookie."

Sookie got a devious look in her eye and started humming to herself. While increasing the suction she was using. "Oh, fuck. I'm going to come" I said and I did. Sookie just kept swirling her tongue around my now sensitive as fuck cock until I finished and relaxed.

She released me and smiled. "That was fucking amazing Sookie" I said.

"Better than sports cars?"

"So much fucking better." I leaned over and kissed her and rolled her onto her back. "And now I think it's your turn." She giggled but stopped when I started to stroke her boob.

However, just at that moment Felicia started wailing. "Ugh, I'd better go" said Sookie, rolling away and heading out the door. I sighed. This was all too familiar really, it was like the night she'd run off from my hotel room. Still, at least this time she was coming back.

It was a long time before she came back though. "She's teething again" Sookie announced. "Eye teeth this time, they're really nasty."

"Oh" I said. I guess playtime was over for the night. Sure enough, as soon as we were trying to go to sleep Felicia set off again. And several times again after that. Each time Sookie would get out of bed and head off to Felicia's room to calm her down. I dozed off and on, aware of her coming and going but losing track of how many times.

However, there came the time when Felicia roared and Sookie didn't stir. I wondered if I should wake her up, but it felt really mean when her sleep was so broken. I got up and headed down to Felicia's room and picked her up. "Come on" I said "You come to your mom for once."

I carried her back to the bedroom, where Sookie woke up and looked at me blearily. "Oh, crap. Did I sleep through the crying again?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. Here, why don't you just cuddle her in here?"

"Oh, are you sure?"

"Yeah it's fine." I handed Felicia to Sookie, who was looking all soft and sleepy, and went around the other side of the bed to climb in behind Sookie.

Felicia had given up crying now she had Sookie and the only sound was the noise of her sucking her hand. "Thanks Eric" said Sookie turning around to give me a quick kiss. She snuggled down against my chest, putting her arm around Felicia. "You're the best boyfriend ever."

Oh. I was Sookie's boyfriend apparently. I was fucking glad I was something, something other than homestay anyway. I wasn't sure about boyfriend though, for one thing, I didn't want her to think of me as a boy. But I could get her to change that later on. For now I was just glad I had a place in her life.

"It's OK Sookie" I said. "You're the best…" I was stuck for a few seconds figuring out what she was to me. "…everything." I finished. And she was. She was the best thing I'd ever had. She was quite quickly becoming my whole world, the person I valued most. Maybe even more than myself sometimes.

But she was making gentle snuffly noises and I realised she was already asleep anyway.

**Thanks for reading!**


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Thanks to all for the reviews!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

EPOV

I was fast asleep when I felt something jab into my back. "Eric!" Amelia whisper-shouted. "It's up time! I want breakfast."

"Huh?" I asked. I tried to roll over, but stopped when I realised I was nearly over the edge of the bed.

"Breakfast!" Amelia said again, getting a bit louder. Sookie and Felicia were still asleep and I wanted them to stay that way, so I eased myself out of bed and stood up.

I followed Amelia out to the kitchen, nearly tripping over Bob in the process. He just looked at me. I guess the queue for breakfast was forming.

"So, uh, what do you want?" I asked Amelia.

"Um…" she thought for a bit. I would have thought she would have figured it out by now. "Toast" she said finally.

"What do you want on it?"

"Peanut butter and jam. But my peanut butter, not Mummy's. With no lumps. And raspberry jam, not strawberry."

OK. I thought I could probably manage that. I stepped over Bob again and grabbed the bread to put it in the toaster. After moving a few things around in the fridge I finally managed to find the right jam and peanut butter. After the toast popped up, I put it on a plate and started to spread peanut butter, almost immediately Amelia was pulling up a small pink stool so she could stand and watch me. Yeah, she was so obviously Sookie's kid sometimes.

Once I'd made the toast to her satisfaction, Amelia carried her plate across to the table, leaving me alone with Bob. I looked at him, wondering just how many more fucking presents he had stashed around the house overnight. Hopefully nothing that was going to start smelling soon.

Sookie and Felicia appeared just as Amelia was finishing her toast and I was pouring coffee for myself. She came over and kissed me. "Thank you" she said. "You're being so great about all of this." She smiled up me.

"Oh, yeah. No problem" I said. It was nice being appreciated, especially when it was Sookie who appreciated me.

"Eric made me toast. He used the bread with lumps though." Amelia had obviously decided to join in the conversation. I turned to look down at her.

"You didn't tell me what bread you wanted."

She shrugged. "I thought you'd know." Then she wandered off. I sighed. I guess not everyone appreciates me.

Sookie laughed. "At least she still ate it. If I stuff up her toast she refuses to touch it. Hey, have you seen Bob?"

"Yeah, he was here. I fed him."

"Oh, thanks for that." She kissed me again. "You really are the best."

I wondered if I was still the best boyfriend, or if she just said that stuff when she was half-asleep. I wanted to ask her, but didn't want to risk her denying it. I waited to see if she'd say anything else, but she was busy sorting out breakfast for Felicia so I figured I'd go and shower, which was no fucking fun alone.

Today I had to take the hire car back, as this should have been the last day of my holiday. So we had to head out to the airport to return it to the car rental lot. Sookie suggested we all go to somewhere called Butterfly Creek, which was apparently nearby. It sounded a bit lame, but I was willing to go along with her suggestion. I think at that point I would have gone along with anything she'd suggested, just because of the way she'd smile at me. I was totally fucked.

SPOV

I was so happy that Eric had stayed. He was such a sweetheart with the kids. It was lovely to have someone to help with them again. You don't realise how much you've been doing by yourself until all of a sudden you're not alone. All those sleepless nights I had when Felicia was a newborn, and then I'd get up in the morning and spend the day entertaining Amelia. No wonder I was so numb when Bill died; I simply didn't have any energy left over for grieving.

One of the best things about having Eric around (well, one of the best things outside the bedroom) was that as I wasn't the only adult, it was easier to take the kids out and do stuff with them. So today, after we dropped off his hire car, we were going to Butterfly Creek. I'd tried to explain what it was to Eric, and he'd looked a bit dubious. Amelia would love it though. It had everything – an aquarium, a butterfly house, crocodiles (god knows why), a petting zoo full of bunnies and guinea pigs, a few farm animals (tucked away behind fences) and a train.

Sure enough Amelia did love it, although I was the only one who liked the butterflies (Felicia cried and Eric and Amelia looked nonplussed). Everyone liked the train, and Amelia had fun poking various rabbits and guinea pigs. I felt kind of sorry for them, Bob would probably sympathise.

After dragging everyone around the farm part of the complex, where Eric eyed the sheep and goats over the fence, and no one else wanted to pat the pigs with me, we had lunch at the cafe and let Amelia run wild through the playground.

"See, this place is great!" I said to Eric, who was sipping his coffee.

"Yeah, it's a bit…odd though. I mean, what's it meant to be?"

"Well it started with the butterflies I guess, but now it's just one of those places you take kids." I guessed these sorts of places weren't somewhere Eric went before he was here. I wondered exactly what his life was like. He was young, single. It occurred to me this had to be a huge shift in lifestyle for him.

"So" I said, "when you were back in the States, what exactly did you used to do? You know, when you weren't working?"

Eric shrugged. "Um, dunno really. Go out, go to the gym, hang out with friends."

"So do you miss them? Your friends?"

"Not really. There was no one I was really…close to. Mostly just guys I knew from work." He took another mouthful of coffee.

It all sounded a bit lonely to me. No wonder that was one of the first things I'd sensed about him. I guessed that maybe the loneliness hadn't just been due to him being stuck on the other side of the world. Maybe he'd been this way for a while.

I reached over and grabbed his hand. "Well we're glad you're here now." I smiled at him, and Eric smiled back. And then Amelia came stomping over and demanded Eric push her on the swings and he was off with her. Yeah, we were all glad he was here.

EPOV

Butterfly Creek was the oddest fucking place I'd ever been. But they'd hit on a winning formula and had to making a fucking fortune, judging by the amount of moms and kids that were paying through the nose to go in. Watching Amelia run around though, I could kind of see Sookie's point about it being set up for kids. She'd even enjoyed patting a baby crocodile, which had worried me at first, but it seemed tamer than the feral swans.

Once we got home though, the afternoon dragged a bit. I was starting to feel a bit lost without something to do every day. I never thought I'd fucking miss working for a living, but I guess I needed the mental challenge. I didn't know what I could do about it though, if I was going to look at businesses in New Zealand I needed to sell my condo to free up the cash, and that hadn't happened yet.

So I spent a bit of time surfing the net, looking at franchises I could buy here. I thought about a Subway franchise, but quickly calculated that I'd have to make the fucking things to make any money from it, and that didn't seem appealing at all.

I stared out to where Sookie was sitting on a picnic rug with Amelia and Felicia. I couldn't hear what they were saying, but they were all laughing. Sookie was tickling Amelia and Felicia was probably just laughing because everyone else was. They all looked so happy, and, well, perfect.

I thought about my freak out on Saturday. I didn't want to do that again. I turned back to the screen on the laptop and started looking for counsellors in Auckland.

Felicia had been happy most of the day, but I suspected it wouldn't last into the night. The amount of drool pouring out of her mouth suggested there was something fucking nasty going on in there.

So when Sookie put her to bed I was prepared for another night of broken sleep and no sex. Sookie came racing into the bedroom though and said "Right, she's down, but I don't know for how long. So we have to be quick."

"Quick?" I asked.

"Yeah, quick. Come on, do that thing where you get naked really fast."

"Oh, OK" I said, pulling off my t-shirt. Sookie decided she'd help me get the rest of my clothes off. Then she started stroking my cock, but obviously decided that wasn't working fast enough for her liking, as she bent down and took me in her mouth. That got me very hard, very fucking fast.

When she decided I'd obviously had enough foreplay, she released me and reached across me to grab a condom out of the drawer. "Put that on" she said, handing it to me. Then she started pulling off her own clothes.

I did as she'd asked, while trying to enjoy watching her get naked at the same time. She was obviously going for a world speed record too.

She straddled me and grabbed my cock to put it at her entrance. "Um, Sookie, are you even..?" I started to ask, but she obviously was ready because she eased herself down and I was fully inside her. "Oh" I said.

"Yeah, I've been thinking about this all day."

Fuck. She had? How the fuck do I miss these things?

She started to move. "Just remember, we have to be quick" she said again.

"Yeah, yeah. I can be quick. I'm just not sure you really want me to be as quick as I can be." I reached up to massage her boobs. I loved this view of them.

"No, quick is good."

"Fine, just remember you said that."

With that, I grabbed her hips and rolled us over so she was underneath me. Sookie giggled. "Wow" she said, "that's, like, better than Disneyland."

"Disneyland?"

"Yeah, you know. The rides. That was waaaay more fun."

OK. I was officially better than Magic Mountain. It was probably the weirdest compliment I'd ever been given during sex, but I guess it meant she was enjoying it.

I started moving so that I was rubbing her clit with each thrust. Sookie was grinding against me. I felt her inner contractions as she moaned "Oh Eric" and pressed her forehead against my chest.

I grabbed one of her legs and hooked my arm under her thigh and started to thrust in and out with increased speed. It wasn't long before I came as well, burying my face in Sookie's neck.

We lay like that for a minute, breathing heavily. "Wow" said Sookie "you are great at being quick."

"I don't think anyone's ever used that as a compliment before" I said.

"Meh, well, they don't know what they're missing." Sookie said laughing.

As I was in the bathroom getting rid of the condom I heard Felicia start crying. Thank fuck she'd waited for us to at least finish. When I got back to the bedroom, Sookie had gone so I put my boxers back on and got into bed to wait for her.

SPOV

Felicia had another unsettled night on Monday. Not as bad as the night before, but not great. Eric was pretty understanding though, I felt that surely the novelty of the crying baby would wear off at some point, but he didn't complain. We had at least managed to have sex though before she'd really started in for the night. That had helped. Well it had helped me at least; I'd been feeling horny all day. It was just a good thing Eric didn't mind being asked to be quick.

We did manage to have a shower together on Tuesday morning, but, once again, it had to be quick before everyone else woke up. So there wasn't any time to do anything but wash each other. Eric does tend to get a bit carried away with washing me though. Sometimes you'd think he'd never seen boobs before.

He also decided to nuzzle me, which caused me to yelp. "Ow! Scratchy!"

"Oh, sorry" he said.

"When did you last shave anyway?"

"Um, Friday…maybe Thursday…" he obviously couldn't remember.

"You are a scruff aren't you? Is this what you're always like on holiday?"

He shrugged. "Yeah, I guess. Also I ran out of razor-blades."

"Oh, you should have said before I went to the supermarket."

"Yeah, it's OK. I'll just get some today." He got an evil look in his eye at that point though, and I had to fight off another round of scratchy-nuzzling.

After we delivered Amelia to pre-school I asked him if he wanted to do anything for the day. He shrugged and said "Lunch somewhere?"

"Where? Do you want to walk to the village?"

"Ummm, maybe somewhere else. What's that place next to the office that the bank's in? The one with all the restaurants?"

"The Viaduct?"

"Yeah, we could go in there and have something."

"OK"

So we headed into the city and enjoyed some fish and chips on a balcony over-looking the water. Felicia seemed happy with a couple of chips in her high-chair.

We chatted for a bit, and then Eric looked a bit serious. "So, yesterday afternoon I sent a few emails, to, some…um, counsellors…" he said, looking down at the table.

"You did?" I was really impressed. I wasn't sure he'd do anything about it on his own and was fully expecting to have to drag him off somewhere myself.

"Yeah, I thought I should, you know, before anything else…happened…"

"That's great Eric. I'm really proud of you." I smiled at him, and he looked up and met my eyes. I was really proud of him. I just hoped saying it didn't make me sound like his mum.

"Thanks" he said, and then we changed the subject. I felt all sort of warm and glowing though. I guess technically he hadn't actually got as far as _going_ to counselling yet, but this was a first step, and it was at least one step further than Bill had ever managed. I couldn't believe that Eric, gorgeous Eric, would actually do this for me. I felt more special than I had in ages.

After lunch we were walking back to the carpark when I remembered the razor-blades, and suggested we head over to the Downtown mall to get some at the pharmacy there. So I was sitting on the bench outside the shop, picking up the rattle Felicia kept throwing out of the push-chair, when I heard an all too familiar drawl.

"Sookie" said Sophie-Anne. Oh joy, I thought.

"Hi Soph! How are you?" I guess having discovered my inner bitch with Lorena, I now had a chance to put it into practice.

"Good. What brings you into the city? Shouldn't you be somewhere in the suburbs?" She eyed Felicia distastefully. Felicia just smiled at her, none the wiser.

"Oh, well we just came in for lunch. We're just out here waiting for Eric." Hah! I thought. Suck on that you stupid barren cow!

Sophie-Anne's eyes widened. "Eric Northman?" I nodded. "Oh, I didn't realise he was still in the country…" she looked over her shoulder obviously trying to spot him, or maybe checking whether I was making it up.

"Yeah" I said, "he's living with me."

"Really?" Sophie-Anne looked like I'd just said I had a tribe of fairies living at the bottom of my garden.

"Yep."

Sophie-Anne eyed me for a bit then said. "Well, I guess you solo mothers have to work fast. I'm surprised you hooked Eric though. I would have thought he'd have more sense. But then for all I know you're just really good at sucking cock or something, and god knows, that's all most men think with."

I had absolutely nothing to say to that. I'm pretty sure my mouth was just hanging open.

"Well, I have to get back to work; some of us have to earn our own livings. See you Sookie" and with that she was off, her heels clicking across the floor.

I was just stunned. I'd thought I'd channelled Sophie-Anne really well when I had to, but it was blatantly obvious she was more of a bitch than I'd ever be.

Eric arrived just then, and said "OK?"

"Yeah, fine." I stood up and kissed him, hard.

"What's that for?" he asked.

"Oh, just for…everything." Yeah, I had Eric and Sophie-Anne had a foul mouth and a bitter, twisted mind. I was pretty sure I was winning.

However, when Eric's phone rang in the middle of the night, I wasn't that sure.

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	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Once again thanks for the review love, not to mention the alerts and favourites. You guys are awesome. And it's really nice when I get up in the morning and see the emails (given I'm in a weird time-zone!)**

**Disclaimer: Characters still aren't mine. **

EPOV

I was pretty fucked off with my phone ringing in the middle of the fucking night. Thank fuck it didn't wake Felicia up, because she'd been awake not long before that. Sookie rolled over and gave me a 'what the hell?' look.

I grabbed my phone and took it out to the living room before answering. Given the time of the call I wasn't fucking surprised when it turned out to be Victor. He wasn't the sort of person who'd particularly worry about checking time zones before calling.

When I got back into bed, Sookie was sitting up. "What was that about?" she asked.

I sighed. "It was my boss, Victor. They need to me to go back and do some more work on that model I created. Apparently Sophie-Anne and Peter want some changes made." I lay down and pulled Sookie down next to me.

"But I thought you quit?" she asked.

"Yeah, but as they're not really making me work out my notice, I don't have much of a choice. It's only for a week or so."

Sookie just said "Oh". I buried my face in her hair and went back to sleep.

SPOV

I woke up in the morning with a sense of dread. Shit, I thought. If I hadn't tried to gloat to Sophie-Anne about Eric he wouldn't have been asked to go back there again. God knows what she'd try to do to him.

No one else was awake yet, so I lay there for a bit just thinking about what I could do. Nothing was the answer to that. I was just going to have to hope for the best.

I disentangled myself from Eric and sat up. I looked down at him, lying there. He was mine at the moment, so I thought I'd better make the most of it. I leaned over and ran my tongue around his ear, sucking the lobe into my mouth. "Shower" I whispered to him.

"Nrgh?" he said, slowly coming around.

"Come on" I said, louder this time. "Or I'll start without you."

He opened his eyes. "Start what without me? Is it something I'm going to enjoy watching?"

I didn't answer but just headed to the bathroom, listening to the sound of Eric throwing off the blankets as he scrambled out of bed.

Later on, when everyone had breakfast and Eric and I were having coffee, I decided I'd better tell him about yesterday.

"So, when we were in Downtown yesterday, I saw Sophie-Anne."

"Oh, did you?"

"Yeah. When you were in the pharmacy. She came over to…well, I don't think she even said hello, but she came over to me anyway. I said we were waiting for you. I paused and took a deep breath. "I said you were living here."

"Oh."

"Mmm, so I wonder if that's why they suddenly want you back there now."

"What, because I'm still in the country?"

"Yeah, and because I said you were living with me."

"You did?"

"Well…yeah. I did. I'm sorry."

"No, it's fine. Don't be sorry." He leaned over and kissed me. "She's an annoying bitch and I don't really care who knows."

"I think she thinks I've trapped you into something." I knew she did, but I was curious as to Eric's reaction to that. Sometimes I wondered if I had trapped him into something, although I had no idea how I would have done it. Maybe I had skills too?

"She probably just thinks everyone's like her. For one thing, I'm pretty sure Peter's married, so if she is sleeping with him she won't be losing her job anytime soon."

"Yeah, she was just rather…nasty in what she said to me yesterday."

Eric looked at me sharply. "Sookie, what exactly did she say?"

"I'd rather not repeat it."

Eric's eyebrows shot up. "Well you have to say it now" he said "because I'm really fucking curious."

I sighed, and looked around to make sure Amelia wasn't in ear shot. She was over trying to put on a show for Felicia with some stuffed toys, so I was safe. "She said that I must" I dropped down to a whisper "suck cock really well." I went back to a normal volume "you know, to have landed you."

I expected Eric to be outraged on my behalf, but instead he burst out laughing.

"What?" I said indignantly.

"You know, she's actually quite right."

"Eric!" I slapped him on the arm.

"Oh, don't be pissed. You know I like you for lots of reasons, we already covered that." He pulled me into his arms. "But she's right about your skill-set. I wonder if she realised that when she hired you?"

I sat there, wanting to feel indignant, but mostly I felt kind of pleased with myself. "So, am I really good?" I asked in a small voice.

Eric kissed the top of my head. "Now you're just fishing for compliments" he said. "But yes, you're very, very, very good." He stood up to take his cup into the kitchen.

Well, I thought, you learn something every day.

EPOV

Sookie's very fucking funny when she's being prudish. Although her confession about running into Sophie-Anne did put another spin on the request for me to go back to work there. I hoped she wasn't going to try any more bullshit. But I didn't have a lot of choice about going back and to be honest, I was kind of glad to have something to do. Hanging around with Sookie and the kids was a lot of fun, but I needed something else as well. I just hoped I could keep far, far away from that fucker Andre.

After Amelia had been dropped at pre-school, I rang Sophie-Anne to make arrangements to come in and see what was required. She sounded OK and didn't say anything about Sookie to me, although I guess she wouldn't on the phone. She'd rather look you in the eye while she's trying to screw with your mind. She was a bitch through and through. God, I was so fucking lucky I'd hadn't let myself get mixed up with her before I'd met Sookie.

We set a meeting up for Friday morning and I finished the call. I spied Sookie outside hanging laundry, and was going to go and help her, when the first spots of rain started to fall. Sookie froze, obviously caught between continuing on in the hope it would blow over, or grabbing what she had out and taking it back in.

I stood at the door watching her stand there, as the drops turned into a shower. Sookie started to pull things back off the line, and I really wanted to go and help her, but I was far too entertained watching her stomp around and mutter at the injustice of it all. By the time she'd got everything back in the basket and was hauling it through the door, I was almost doubled over.

"You would think" she announced, wiping her feet, "that just for once, it could bloody wait until the washing is dry. Or at least have the decency to rain before I get out there to hang anything up. But no. I swear the weather is out to get me every time." At that point she spied me "What's your problem?" she asked.

"You're fucking hilarious. There should be a caption, like 'When good underpants fairies go bad' or something." I wiped the tears off my face. "Honestly, you have no idea what you look like out there practically shaking your fist at the clouds…"

Sookie's face didn't look amused. "And what exactly do I look like Eric? Go on, enlighten me."

"Ummm...well, you look like a really pissed-off pixie or something…"

"Humpf" Sookie said and she stomped off to put the washing in the dryer.

I followed her, hoping to salvage the situation. She was throwing clothes into the dryer rather angrily. "Hey" I said, but she didn't look at me.

"I'm sorry."

"It's fine."

"You don't sound fine."

"No, I'm fine."

"It was just…funny, surely you can see that."

She stood up. "Yeah, OK. I'm sorry too. It's just this stuff is important to me. I guess it's silly to you, but the washing and everything; it's kind of like my job. And it's a pretty stink job, but it's all I've got." She shrugged and walked off again. I guess this was my morning to be following her around.

She'd made it to the kitchen when I found her again. "It's not that bad" I said.

"Yes it is" she sighed. "I'm starting to get upset over washing. That's pretty bad." And then she was laughing. Obviously she had some kind of built-in delay or something. As far as women went, Sookie was the best I'd ever known, but even she had her moments which were completely fucking mystifying.

I waited for her to get over it. "Right" she said "Yeah, that was funny. I can't believe that's what I'm reduced to. Being upset that I can't get the washing dry."

"Well, you are the underpants fairy."

"Yeah, but I'm sure there used to be more to life." She sighed and looked a bit wistful.

"So, you mean you wished you were back working?" when I'd met Sookie she was working, but now I mostly thought of her being here with the kids.

"Well, not working with Sophie-Anne and Andre" she looked at me sideways. "Good luck with not being sucked back into their bullshit. You might be alright with it, but I'm over that these days."

It occurred to me I didn't know anything about what she'd done before that. "What did you do, before you had kids?" I asked.

"Same shit, different bank. Before I had Amelia I basically did Andre's job, but I was probably never going to go any further. I don't have the killer instincts of someone like Sophie-Anne. And after I had a baby, I didn't want to work full-time, so they begrudgingly took me back three days a week to run some projects for them. But then I got made redundant just before I had Felicia so that was that."

"You wouldn't go back there?"

"I doubt they'd want me back, even if I did want to go back. Which I don't. The CFO there is a total fuckwit. Let's just say there's no love lost between Steve Newlin and I."

"So…you're going to be a stay-at-home mom then?" I asked with a fair amount of trepidation. I wasn't sure what the rules were about asking women that question. Sometimes they'd be a bit shitty about stuff like that.

Sookie didn't seem to mind though. "I think" she said "I'd go bonkers if I had to stay at home forever. I just need to find something that suits me better really. And still lets me have some time with the kids. Just not enough time that Amelia and I drive each other mental."

This was actually quite interesting stuff. I wondered maybe if I could get Sookie to come and work for me if I did find a business. The Subway franchise idea popped back into my head, but she might be a bit pissed if I asked her to spend her days making sandwiches. I was sure we could think of something though.

"So how about you?" she asked. "Are you OK with going back to work? The end of your holiday and all of that."

I shrugged. "I guess so. Don't really have a choice."

"Yeah" she said. She looked like she wanted to say something else, but changed the subject. "So, plans for the day today are?"

"Dunno. Suppose I should get a bank account. Take my suits to get cleaned. Shit like that."

"OK, well we're off to St Luke's then."

I groaned. I just hoped nothing was on sale.

SPOV

We spent the morning doing errands for Eric and I was very good and didn't go wandering into random stores more than once or twice. At some point I had to start some Christmas shopping. I left Eric and Felicia outside a homewares store so I could go and look at something for Judith and Calvin. When I came back out Eric was holding Felicia up so she could get a good look at one of the Christmas trees that were stationed around the mall. She was gazing in awe at the sparkly ornaments and trying really hard to reach one.

"Oh" he said when he saw me. "Is this OK? She was desperate to have a look so I got her out of the stroller."

"No, that's great. This stage, when they're impressed with anything sparkly, is so short." I smiled at him; he was obviously feeling a lot more confident with her these days.

Eric smiled back and Felicia smiled at her reflection in a large red bauble and started clapping. It looked as though we were all having a good morning.

We got back in time to put Felicia down for her nap. She was tired from having had another cranky night, although you'd never tell during the day. Eric persuaded me we should have a lie down as well. With the early afternoon sun pouring through the French doors in my room, it was lovely and warm in there, and I probably would have drifted off, if Eric hadn't leaned over and given me one of his special kisses; the ones that make all sorts of parts of me go tingly and want a lot more contact. So obviously we weren't going to be sleeping any time soon.

I wondered if we stayed together whether Eric would always be able to talk me into having sex quite this easily. And then I wondered whether I'd ever get a chance to find out. And then I thought I should really shut up and stop thinking before I made myself completely depressed.

It wasn't long before we were naked. I was still surprised with just how much I liked being naked around Eric. I really loved the feel of our bodies pressed together.

The sun on my skin just added to the lovely sensations Eric was creating with his mouth and hands. I could have felt so exposed; lying there in the middle of the day, naked, legs over Eric's shoulders, opening myself up to him completely. But I didn't feel exposed, well, not in a bad way. I felt…well, my sex-addled brain thought that I felt loved, but that couldn't be right. I didn't know what I felt. Valued? Safe? Both of them and more.

And then I had to stop thinking because I was overcome with waves of pleasure. Even better, Eric soon had a condom on and was inside me. And I felt that feeling again. The one that felt like love but wasn't really.

**Thanks for reading!**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N Thanks for all the reviews and alerts!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

SPOV

Thursday flew by for some reason. Maybe because I was starting to get worried about sending Eric back to Sophie-Anne. At least that's how I thought of it when I thought about him going back to the bank.

Realistically, I knew I couldn't keep him locked away in my house forever. But I remembered how he panicked and started lying to Sophie-Anne last time and we all got caught up in that. He was a grown-up and should be able to look after himself, but I worried about him.

Annoyingly though, Eric looked sort of…pleased to be going back. I tried not feel insulted that he obviously wasn't getting everything he needed hanging out here with us. But then I didn't either, and I suppose he didn't even have the laundry to take care of, so he needed something to do. And we'd tried DIY already.

So Friday morning Eric put on his suit, which of course he looked gorgeous in, and we all headed off into the city. I was going to take the kids and hang around in Downtown for a while, and then Eric could meet us for lunch.

EPOV

The worst bit about having to go in and see Sophie-Anne and Peter was having to get back into my fucking suit. I'd been enjoying not having to get dressed up for work everyday. But I couldn't turn up looking like the 'scruff' Sookie had accused me of being, so I was stuck with it.

Amelia chattered happily all the way in but Sookie was a bit quiet. She seemed a bit fucked off about the whole thing really, but it wasn't like I had much of choice. She'd just have to deal with it. It would be fine. I reached over and patted her leg while she was driving in a gesture which was meant to be reassuring but which made her turn and frown at me. I gave up.

Sookie and the kids left me at the lobby of the building and I headed up to reception in order to get the meeting over with. It was Sophie-Anne and Peter to start with, so after a few pleasantries it was down to business. What they wanted didn't sound that onerous, and should really have been able to have been accomplished by someone who actually worked here fulltime. Reading between the lines it became clear that Andre was too much of a dumb-ass to manage it. It probably interfered with his time on the internet.

When we were mostly done, Peter was called off to another meeting, leaving me alone with Sophie-Anne. I braced myself waiting for what she was going to say. The first thing she did was lean over the table. I guess so I could get a better view of her bony chest. I fucking wish she hadn't bothered. I leaned back, trying to maximise the distance between us.

"So, Eric" she said. "How are you finding Auckland now?"

"Oh, um…OK." I wasn't sure what she was digging for, but I wasn't volunteering anything.

"You know, if you did want to…stay here, I don't think it's that hard to get residency."

"No, doesn't seem like it."

"You probably don't have to…do anything stupid, you know?" OK, now it was clear. She thought I was using Sookie to stay here.

"No, well, I pride myself on not doing anyone stupid." I said looking straight at her. I didn't care enough to try to be nice. It wasn't like Victor could really fire me or anything.

Sophie-Anne looked a bit flustered. "Right, well I think we're done here. So, I'll see you Monday morning then." She stood up and started to leave the room. I followed. Well, it could have gone worse I thought.

SPOV

I was really glad when I saw Eric heading towards us across the foodcourt. Not just because it was Eric and I was always pretty happy to see him, but also because I had just survived a trip to The Warehouse to buy new colouring in books for Amelia and it drove me slightly bananas trying to manage the two of them in there. I was getting addicted to having another pair of hands around.

Eric came over and kissed me. I noticed he'd taken off his tie and stuffed it in his pocket. I think he was over the suit already.

"I got you sushi" I said, pushing it towards him.

"Oh thanks"

I'd had to work hard to get Amelia to accept sushi once she spied the McDonald's, and I'd had to pretty much promise her an ice cream afterwards.

"So how did it go?" I asked Eric.

"Oh, OK. It seems straightforward enough, so I'll start Monday." He took a bite then said "I should probably try and get a car over the weekend then."

"Yeah, probably best." God, I hoped that went better than the previous attempt.

"And I'm sure I'll be fine doing it." I looked up and Eric was looking at me.

"Yeah, yeah, fine. I'm sure you will be." I went back to making sure Amelia wasn't spilling too much soy sauce everywhere.

When I next looked up I realised we were being watched from the other side of the foodcourt. Andre was standing there looking at all of us. I peered at him over Eric's shoulder, and raised my hand to wave, but Andre turned sharply and stalked off.

"Who was that?" Eric asked.

"Andre. But he took off. Odd."

"Yeah, well, he's a complete douche."

"You didn't see him when you were in there?"

"Nope. Just Peter and his bitch."

"Sssh! Eric!" I was laughing though. It would probably annoy the hell out of Sophie-Anne if she knew we were laughing at her.

After we got back through lunch, which included ice creams for Eric and Amelia, we headed back over the overbridge to the carpark. As we reached the lifts near the lobby Sophie-Anne suddenly appeared clutching a sandwich and coffee she'd obviously just bought at the café.

"Oh" she said. "Eric, hello again." Yeah, I thought, thanks for ignoring me. I was about to speak up, but Amelia beat me to it.

"Hello, I'm Amelia, what's your name?"

Sophie-Anne looked at her with the same expression I thought she might wear if her washing machine suddenly came to life and introduced itself to her.

"Oh, Sophie-Anne" she said.

"That's a pretty name. This is my baby Felicia…"

"Oh, um…"

"…and this is Sookie…"

"Yes, I…"

"…and this is Eric, and Mum says we're keeping him like we kept Bob. But Bob is cuter. Although Mum says he's not cute when he brings rats in."

"Right, well…"

"I had sushi for lunch. And an ice cream. Eric bought the ice cream. I wanted chicken nuggets and chips but Mum said no. What's your lunch?"

"A sandwich…"

"I like sandwiches with marmite and butter and cheese. You've got a dress on. I've got a dress on too. Mum wanted me to wear shorts, but I said no. I like dresses…"

I decided I'd better step in. Although it was entertaining to watch Sophie-Anne flounder about, Amelia's hero worship was stepping up. Sophie-Anne was glamorous in a way I just never would be as her mother and if I didn't do something Amelia would probably try to follow her new best friend back to her office.

"Right" I said "we need to get going. Come on guys. See you Sophie-Anne."

I started walking off, pushing Felicia's pushchair in front of me, Eric walking alongside me. I could see he was trying hard to hold the laughter in. "Bye Sophie-Anne! See you soon!" Amelia waved enthusiastically with the hand that Eric wasn't using to drag her along with. I didn't look back to see if Sophie-Anne was waving too. She was probably too stunned at this point.

We got everyone back in the car and headed back home. Amelia chattered for a bit and then it was eerily quiet. Sitting in the car in the heat of the middle of the day had put both kids to sleep.

"Did you see the look on Sophie-Anne's face?" I asked Eric.

"Yup. It was fucking priceless."

"Who knew Amelia had it in her to render Sophie-Anne speechless? Maybe if Sophie-Anne is a pain in the bum when you're working you could just take Amelia in with you and sit her by your desk, like some kind of mini protection charm. Keep everyone away with the constant chatter of a 3 year old."

"Yeah. I always thought you were supposed to use kids to pick up women, not scare them off."

I glanced at Eric. "And where did you get that brilliant idea from?"

He shrugged. "I think that was Victor's strategy. He's divorced and I seem to remember him saying he got more action on the weekends he had his kids than when he didn't."

"Ugh. He sounds delightful. Do guys really talk about that kind of stuff?"

"Sometimes."

"Well don't get any stupid ideas about using my kids to pick up women."

Eric snorted. "I think we've just proven that won't work with Amelia."

"Well there's always Felicia, she's still small and cute."

"Sookie, why would you even think I'd want to pick up random women in the first place? When I have you?"

I shrugged. I didn't really, but the insecure part of me wanted him to say he didn't. "I don't, but you brought it up."

"I brought up Victor's strategy, not mine."

"So what do you use to pick up women?" I regretted that, as soon as I'd asked.

Eric looked at me, and then grinned. "Don't you remember, I just stalk women?"

"Women? So you've stalked more than just me?" I realised I should shut up, but the message hadn't got to my mouth yet.

Eric sighed. "No, I've only ever stalked you. You're special to me in a whole way that is…probably slightly creepy if you look at it objectively. There, are you happy now?"

"Bizarrely, I am."

"Sometimes you're a very odd woman Sookie Stackhouse."

"Yeah, but I think that's what makes us work." I pulled the car into the driveway and Eric leaned over and kissed me. Then he looked at me for a long time before getting out.

EPOV

Watching Sophie-Anne get taken down by a 3 year old made my fucking afternoon. The best bit was that Amelia didn't even realise what she was doing.

Talking about it with Sookie in the car turned into the weirdest fucking conversation I think I'd ever had. I wasn't entirely sure what she was trying to get me to admit to. First she thought I was going to run off with her kids to pick up women, and then she was worried I was a fucking serial stalker. For some reason it cheered her up when she found out that I'd only ever been fucking stupid enough to stalk her. I didn't want to say it was because I'd never needed to stalk a woman before, I wasn't about to sabotage myself that fucking badly.

The kids were both asleep in the car, so I carried Amelia inside while Sookie followed behind with Felicia in her arms. They both looked so peaceful when asleep, you had no idea of the kind of mayhem they were both capable of creating.

We put them into bed and then I went to strip out of my suit, which was a relief. I really wanted to see what I could get Sookie to strip out of, but we heard Amelia start stomping around. I guess as she didn't normally have a nap she wasn't going to stay asleep once the car stopped moving. I tried not to be too disappointed.

As it was a nice afternoon we hung out in the back garden. I wondered how long before I had to mow the lawns again. I wasn't used to having grass to take care of. And then I wondered when I started to think of it as my lawn. Probably around the same time I started thinking of this as my house and my family, which would have been…about five minutes after Sookie said I could stay. I looked over to where she and Amelia were sloshing about in a basin of water pretending to wash Amelia's tea set. Felicia was next to me on the picnic rug, eyeing them jealously as she wasn't prepared to cross the treacherous grass to get to the interesting splashing. "Come on" I said to her "let's go over there and see who ends up the wettest."

SPOV

Amelia got all her Barbies out in the afternoon and brought one of them over to me to dress for her. "Her name's Sophie-Anne" she announced before heading off again. Oh yay, I thought. One of them finally has a name and that's what she picks. I went back to making lasagne for dinner.

After dinner I put Felicia to bed while Eric read Amelia her story. When he came out I was packing the Barbies back into their box.

"How did it go?" I asked.

"Fine, she was happy with just the one story."

"What did you read?"

"The Tiger who Came to Tea. But I have to say I don't get it."

It was an English book written in the late 1960's. Eric was American and much newer. I guessed he didn't get the concept of tea. "Well, it's sort of like a really big afternoon tea, I guess." I said.

"No, I don't get why you'd invite a tiger into your house in the first place."

"Oh. Well I guess a talking tiger would be kind of a novelty, wouldn't you think?"

"I think it would be fucking dangerous."

"Well, chances are we won't ever have the opportunity to have a tiger in the house, so I think we're safe. Besides, I loved that book as a kid. I was always sad at the end when the tiger never comes back."

Eric just snorted and started helping me shove Barbies in a box. After a while he held one up. "I like this one, she kind of looks like you."

"Um, I'm not sure whether to be flattered or insulted that you're comparing me to a Barbie. Or just worried that you think about this stuff."

Eric shrugged and said "Well Amelia makes me play with her."

"Yeah…OK. Mostly I guess I'm glad you didn't pick that one" I pointed to one. "She's apparently called Sophie-Anne. I guess after Amelia's new best friend."

"Oh great, so I have to put up with one at home as well."

"Yeah, guess so." It wasn't until I was putting the lid on the box and tucking it away that I realised that Eric had called this home. I thought about it for a bit. It didn't feel wrong, or presumptive, or anything other than normal. I wondered if he was sliding from boyfriend into something else entirely, but decided that as he didn't know he was my boyfriend yet, maybe I wouldn't even go there myself.

Just then the phone rang and it was Tara. She'd yet to catch up on the full Eric staying story so was a bit surprised when I apologised for being out of contact because he was still here.

"Oh, so he didn't go?"

"No, he's still here. Until Christmas probably."

"Just until then?"

"Well, I don't know, we haven't really discussed it."

"Sookie! You probably should. You can't really move someone in and just live day by day. Don't you want to sit down and figure out the relationship?"

"Um, not really. I'm happy, he seems happy. Let's just…leave it for now. That's what I think."

"Humph. Well don't come crying to me if he suddenly takes off because he thinks you don't like him."

"No, OK. I won't" I said, while thinking crap, I hope that isn't going to happen. Maybe Tara is right?

Tara had been ringing to invite me and the girls over for dinner the next night, assuming she had to cheer me up because I was alone again. So she graciously extended the invitation to Eric as well, seeing as he was doing the job for her.

I found Eric in the bedroom, where he was watching re-runs of Flight of the Conchords.

"We're invited for dinner tomorrow night, to Tara and JB's place." I said, sitting next to him.

"Oh, OK then. That sounds good." I looked at him to see if he was going to say more, like 'oh god, not your friends' but he didn't. He just laughed at the TV.

"You know" he said "I can't decide if this makes more or less sense now that I've lived here for a bit.

"Yeah" I said "well we're not all shepherds for one thing. I actually saw them live, years ago, and thought they were a bit lame." I laughed. "It was probably one of the few times Bill 'got' something more than I did. Maybe you need to be an IT geek to appreciate a binary solo in a song, I don't know." I glanced at Eric to make sure he didn't mind the mention of Bill, but his expression hadn't changed. "And of course they have that Lord of the Rings song. Bill loved those movies."

"Yeah" said Eric "I like those too." Well there you go, they had something in common. Other than me I guess.

"Oh, well the DVDs are around somewhere if you ever want to watch them."

"Oh, cool."

We sat in silence, laughing occasionally, until the episode ended. "So" said Eric, as he switched the TV off, "is this the bit where you demand I get naked really quickly?"

"Oh, I don't know. I wouldn't want to force you into anything against your will."

"No, you can demand anything from me. Anything your little heart desires." Eric leaned over and kissed me.

"Hmmm" I said, pretending to think. "Hmmm, what could I possibly want? You know, I'm not coming up with anything…" Eric started tickling me.

"OK, that doesn't help me think, Eric!"

"I don't see why you have to think in the first place."

"Alright, alright, just hold off for a minute and I'm sure I can come up with something." He pulled back and I looked at him.

"Well, I guess, if you reaaaalllly don't mind, then you can do that thing where you get naked really quickly. But only if you're sure."

Eric already had his t-shirt off and was working on his shorts. "So" he said, kicking them off and pulling his boxers down. "Can I get you naked next?"

"Yeah, alright. Go on then." And he did.

**Thanks for reading!**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N Feels like FOREVER since I posted something! RL sucks. I missed you guys though, I'm sad when there are no reviews to look at!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

SPOV

When I woke up on Saturday morning I realised two things. One, Eric was holding me really tight to his chest, and the second was that I really liked it. The lines of an old Split Enz song popped into my head, something like 'Now I wake up happy, warm in a lover's embrace.' I lay there trying to remember the rest, 'No more…doo doo doo possession. So I'll sing it to the world, this simple message to my girl…"

I was lying there trying to remember more of the song, when Eric murmured "You're humming."

"What? Was I?"

"Yeah, what is it?"

"Just a song I was trying to remember the lyrics to. Nothing important." I rolled over to face him. "Do you think we're early enough for a shower?" I asked, but Felicia's indignant wail from down the hall answered that before Eric had a chance to.

Eric still needed a car, so I sent him off in mine to try again, hoping I wasn't looking too obviously worried as I kissed him goodbye.

EPOV

Who knew that buying a fucking car was going to turn into such a test? After completely fucking it up the previous Saturday, there was no way I could afford to have it go so badly this time.

So I tried a different car yard, I figured it didn't really matter what one I went to, the cars were all pretty much the same. I decided that thinking too much about it was what got me in the shit last time, so I just picked a couple to test drive and bought a rather boring looking SUV. I just wanted to get back to Sookie and let her know it was OK this time.

Only she wasn't there, when I got back, which felt fucking odd. I wasn't used to coming back to an empty house, which made me wonder how I'd coped for all those years I'd lived alone. I was at a bit of a loss for what to do now I had no one to tell.

Thankfully I didn't have that problem for long, as Sookie arrived back with Amelia and Felicia in tow, looking rather hot and flustered. "Oh, you're back" she said, lifting Felicia out of the stroller and putting her on the floor. "We went to the park and it was warm out there. How'd it go?"

"Yeah, alright. I got something. I can pick it up on Monday." I hugged her. She was trying not to show anything I knew, but she held on to me pretty tight, like she'd been afraid I wouldn't come back.

"Is it lunchtime now?" asked Amelia.

"Yeah, guess so." said Sookie. "We went to the bakery on the way home."

I let go of Sookie and went to investigate what they'd bought.

The rest of the afternoon was marked only by Sookie's happy dance when she finally managed to get some laundry dry outside. "Yay, its summer!" she said, dancing around the backyard. "Now it's really starting to feel like Christmas!"

"Um, not so much" I said, kind of mesmerised by the shimmy Sookie had been doing.

"Phft. Of course it does. Who wants it to be cold at Christmas anyway? That's just wrong. When I lived in London it was just miserable all the time. You couldn't even go outside! Who doesn't go outside at Christmas?"

"Lots of people…"

"Yeah, well you're just being all…Northern Hemisphere-ist now. Just because it's cold there for Christmas doesn't mean that's right."

I snorted. Sookie was just trying to get me to bite, so I decided to give her what she wanted. "But Santa needs snow, surely? Otherwise the reindeer would swelter when they got here."

But I hadn't noticed Amelia sidling up to us and she overheard what we were talking about, and wailed "But there's no snow! If we don't have snow, Santa won't come! Mum we need snow!"

Sookie gave me a rather filthy look and said "It's fine, Santa doesn't need snow. Santa just lives where there's snow. He will still bring presents to all the good boys and girls."

"Yeah, that's right." I added, hoping to undo my earlier comment, but Amelia looked unconvinced.

"But, there's no snow…" she said again.

"And that's OK. Trust me, Santa will still come. If you're good that is!" Sookie said.

Amelia thought for a bit, and then said "Do you think he'll bring me some binoculars?"

"Possibly" said Sookie "You'll have to tell him that's what you want."

"Will he bring presents for Leesha?"

"Yes"

"Really?" Amelia looked shocked at that. "But she's a baby?"

"That still counts. Now go and find your shoes as we're off to Aunty Tara's shortly."

Amelia ran off and I picked up the laundry basket to follow Sookie. "Wow" I said "She takes that Santa stuff really fucking seriously."

"Yup, she's 3. It's life or death. So be careful what you say around her, because she'll take it all to heart."

"Yeah, I get that. I didn't mean to upset her."

"No, I know. It's fine."

SPOV

I was a bit nervous about taking Eric over to Tara's and introducing him properly. I hoped he was going to cope a bit better than Bill had, Bill wasn't really one to socialise, well, not with anyone he hadn't personally been friends with since he was about 15. Going to Tara and JB's could be a bit of an ordeal as Bill would clam up and it would be uncomfortable.

But Eric seemed OK. The stickiest bit was when JB offered him a beer, and I could tell he wasn't sure what to do, and he sort of glanced at me while trying to figure it out. In the end I guess the desire to fit in won over and he accepted one. I assumed he'd probably be fine while he was with me.

Amelia was off hanging out with Charlotte and Lachie in the backyard, which was filled with play equipment. Eric did the bloke thing and went to help with the barbecue, although from what I could hear he was mostly at Amelia's beck and call as she asked him to push her on the swings, lift her onto the trampoline and rescue her from her perch at the top of the climbing frame.

So that left me in the kitchen with Tara and Felicia. "Wine?" asked Tara, already pouring me a glass.

"Please."

"So, Eric seems to be fitting in OK." Tara said as she handed me the glass. We looked out to where he was playing with the kids.

"Yeah, he's fine."

"Just fine?"

"No, no. It's really good. I don't really know what it is, but it's good. Oh, is Felicia OK in that drawer?"

"Yeah, that's just plastic stuff. She was playing with that when I looked after her."

"Good."

Tara went back to making salad, but looked thoughtful. "So, is this like permanent then?" she asked.

"Oh, God. I think it's too early for that Tara!"

She shrugged. "Not necessarily, you're not getting any younger."

"Tara!" It was a good thing I'd known her so long because she wasn't exactly sugar-coating her observations.

"No, what I meant was that I don't think it has to work like it did when we were younger. You knew Bill for what, 10 years before you married him?" I nodded. "Yeah, when we were so young we wanted to wait to make sure. But I think now, you can just get on with it."

"But I'm not marrying Eric."

"Well, fine, don't marry him. But I don't think you have to go quite so slow this time around. Jeez, if you wait ten years this time you'll be ancient!"

"Thanks very much! Good thing I'm younger than you then!" Sometimes the problem with having known someone for so long was that you fell back into the same old patterns all the time.

Tara snorted. "I don't think 3 months makes all that difference anymore."

"It's a huge difference" I said smiling, and I crouched down so I could put all of Tara's plastic containers back in the drawer Felicia had just emptied.

Dinner itself went well, although Amelia tried to talk everyone's ear off and got a bit annoyed when she was upstaged by the older Charlotte. Lachlan mainly seemed to want to shout and try to shoot people. I was kind of glad not to have any boys; somehow Barbies seemed to be infinitely more manageable.

We ended up staying later than I intended, and it was starting to get dark when we left. Of course it was way past bedtime for both Amelia and Felicia who were probably going to be tired and cranky in the morning, but they'd both enjoyed themselves. Although it was hard to tell sometimes with Felicia. I guess the only time she'd cried was when we'd hauled her away from the drawer in Tara's kitchen to eat something, so that was pretty good for her.

I quite enjoyed the one, or possibly two bottles of sauvignon blanc that Tara had opened. Eric seemed to have stopped after one beer, so I let him drive home. I must have been a little bit on the tipsy side because watching him curse under his breath after he tried to get in the car without first putting the seat back was about the funniest thing I'd ever seen in my life at that point.

EPOV

I'd survived dinner with Sookie's friends, without any major fuck-ups. I wasn't sure what the rule was on drinking when we were out, but Sookie didn't seem fucked off by me having a beer. She seemed to be drinking more than her fair share of the wine while we were there, and ended up laughing herself silly at me trying to get into her car without pushing the seat right back. My knees ended up jammed under the steering wheel and she obviously thought that was the most entertaining thing she'd ever fucking seen. Amelia just kept repeating "What? What happened?" from the back seat, but Sookie just kept laughing, which annoyed Amelia no end.

I'd hung out with JB at the barbecue, which meant that I spent a lot of time co-opted by Amelia who was making the most of all the play stuff they had spread all over their lawn. I was really fucking regretting the afternoon's throwaway comment, because she kept asking me if Santa was really coming, and why wasn't there any snow if Santa needs snow? I had to keep reassuring her that it was all OK; I didn't think I could tell her that there's no snow because Christmas is during the wrong fucking season in this part of the world. Not that I was used to seeing snow at Christmas, but it did feel really wrong for it to actually be summer.

Fuck, I realised, I was going to have to buy Sookie a real Christmas present at some stage.

Right, now though I was mostly concentrating on just getting home. Felicia had gone to sleep in her carseat, and Amelia wasn't far behind. Even Sookie was a bit quiet now she was over her giggles.

I was driving down Mt Eden Road, when I saw something I hadn't seen so far in this country, mainly I guess because there was no fucking point when it's not dark until about 9 o'clock at night. There was a house that was all decked out with Christmas lights; they'd covered the front lawn as well. I had an idea and pulled the car over.

"What's happening?" Sookie asked, looking confused.

"I have an idea" I said, just as Amelia asked loudly "Are we home?"

"No, we're somewhere better. Santa's base of operations in New Zealand."

"What?" asked Amelia, looking confused.

"Santa's house. For when he visits here."

"Oh, really?" she asked.

"Yeah, come on, let's have a look."

Leaving Felicia to snooze in the car, I got out and helped Amelia out of her car seat, and Sookie joined us. The place was covered in all manner of lights and decorations, and mannequins. It was a fucking bizarre anomaly in the middle of Mt Eden, but I hoped it would help Amelia. I lifted her up to sit on my shoulders so she had a better view over the fence.

"So Santa lives here?" she asked.

"Santa visits here, when he's in New Zealand. Like when he goes to St Luke's so you can get your photo with him" said Sookie, who was catching on.

"But there's no snow?"

"No" I said, "there doesn't need to be snow. That's what I've been trying to tell you."

"Oh" she said. "So Santa will really come then?"

"Yeah" I said, "Santa will really come."

"But only if you're good" added Sookie.

"I'm always good!" Amelia said indignantly.

"Mmmm" Sookie said diplomatically.

So we stood there for a while, with Amelia excitedly yelling about all the things she could see, and then joined Felicia back in the car for the short trip home. Sookie leaned over and whispered "that was good thinking" to me, and I wasn't sure which made me feel better, that I'd fixed Amelia's funk about Santa, or that Sookie appreciated my efforts.

Drinking seemed to put Sookie in a good mood. A very good mood. So good that not even Amelia deciding that she didn't want to brush her teeth and get ready for bed, put her out of it. Luckily I was outside the bathroom and caught Amelia as she tried to make a break for it, although that may have just made it more fun for her.

Later on that night she was still looking happy. I was sitting on the bed, lying back against the pillows, watching Sookie as she rose and fell, riding me. She looked flushed and sweaty and fucking magnificent. And she was smiling like a fucking idiot.

I took one of her fantastic breasts in my mouth and rolled my tongue around her nipple, feeling her grip on my shoulders tighten in response. "Ohhh, that's good" she murmured, before putting both hands on my face and pulling me up for a kiss. She moaned again, and I felt her tightening around me. I'm pretty sure that I may have been smiling at that point too. I fucking loved this. Just before I came I had a thought that there was a fucking mountain of stuff I loved when Sookie was around, but I wasn't sure that I wasn't just caught up in the moment.

Sookie was still smiling when I got back from getting rid of the condom. "You look happy" I said, getting into bed beside her.

"Yeah, well this makes me happy" she said, putting her head on my chest.

"What, sex?"

"Sex with you." For some reason that made me feel a bit deflated, like maybe all she wanted me for was sex, but then she went on. "Actually, you just generally makes me happy." That was better.

"Well you make me very fucking happy too." I kissed the top of her head.

"Yeah" she said sleepily, "it's good when everyone's happy."

"Yeah, it is."

"Night, then" she said, kissing my chest.

"Night."

**The song is Message to My Girl by Split Enz. The opening lyrics are "I don't want to say I love you, that would give away too much." Which is kind of apt. And the bit Sookie's trying to remember (because I guess lots of you won't have heard it) is:**

Now I wake up happy  
warm in lovers embrace.  
No one else can touch us  
while we're in this place.

So I'll sing it to the world  
this simple message to my girl.

No more empty self possession,  
visions swept under the mat.  
It's no New Years resolution,  
it's more than that.

Though I'm frightened by the word,  
think it's time I made it heard.

So I'll sing it to the world  
this simple message to my girl.

No more empty self possession,  
visions swept under the mat.  
It's no New Years resolution,  
it's more than that.

Oh there's nothing quite as real  
as the touch of your sweet hands.  
I can't spend the rest of my life  
buried in the sand.

**Thanks Neil Finn, you're awesome!**

**And thanks for reading!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N Nothing new to say, other than thanks!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

SPOV

When I woke up on Sunday it was like the end of the world had happened. I was alone and the house was eerily quiet. I couldn't figure out for a minute where everyone was, and my headache wasn't helping. Surely if Eric had decided to run away in the middle of the night he wouldn't take my kids with him? No one's that dumb.

So I hauled myself out of bed and, after a quick trip to the bathroom, made it to the kitchen. Amelia and Eric were sitting at the table in the family room, engrossed in the new colouring in books we'd bought her on Friday. I went over to see what they were doing. When we were in The Warehouse I'd been so focussed on just getting Amelia to pick something that I hadn't really paid attention to the fact that in amongst the pile of Tinkerbell, and Barbie and My Little Pony books, she'd included a Hot Wheels one. But now I figured out why. She'd got one for Eric as well. I think she assumed I'd just brought him home to be a kind of playmate for her. No wonder she wasn't jealous of him taking my time, she thought he was hers.

"Morning" I said, going over to kiss Eric. "Oh", he said looking up from his colouring-in, "Hi. We were letting you sleep in."

"I can't believe they didn't wake me up."

"Yeah, you were pretty out to it."

"Mummy, you were snoring!" Amelia interjected. Eric just sniggered a bit, so I swatted his shoulder.

"There's coffee made" he said, so I headed to the kitchen to grab some. Felicia crawled past with a decidedly saggy bottom. "Um, did you change Felicia when you got her up?" I asked Eric.

"Her diaper?" he asked, I nodded. "Yup, I did". He looked really pleased with himself.

"Brilliant, thank you" I said, making a note to deal with it later on. I got some coffee, some water and some ibuprofen and put toast on. Going back over to the table I said "It looks like it's going to be a lovely day, so I was thinking…"

Eric cut me off. "If you're going to say you're going to do laundry, then please don't. You know it will rain in about an hour if you do."

"No, what I was going to say was, we should go to the beach!" I looked at Eric expectantly; he didn't look as thrilled with the idea as I'd thought he would be. "What? You don't like the beach? I thought you came from California?"

"Not the part with a beach."

"Well, it will be fun."

"Are we going to the beach?" Amelia asked.

"Yes" I said, looking at her and not Eric.

"Yay, I'm going to build a sandcastle" she was out of her chair and up the hall before I had a chance to say anything else.

Eric sighed. "I guess that means I'm building a sandcastle too then."

"Yep, you know it."

"So where are we going? Mission Bay? Piha?"

"Too busy and too far away. What beach should we try, ummm…?"

Eric looked at me. "How many beaches are there?"

"Oh, um, tons. We live on a strip of land between two harbours. There are beaches everywhere. Ummm…" Eric was looking at me expectantly as I was running through them all in my head, trying to find something that wasn't too far away or too busy. "Oh, I know. Milford. It's over the Shore, but it's not too far from the motorway, and it's nice and flat."

"Well, if you say so" said Eric, still not looking that enthused.

"Yup, I do. So I'm going for a shower, you can go and get your togs then."

"What togs?"

"Sorry, swimsuit."

"OK" he stood up and wandered off.

EPOV

Apparently going to the beach with Sookie required as much stuff and planning as a military campaign. I don't think we even packed this much to go to Piha. She actually had to make a list for fuck's sake, so she didn't forget anything.

I got the fucking thankless task of trying to fit it all in the trunk of Sookie's car. I walked back to the house and stuck my head in the door. "Can we take the stroller out?" I yelled at Sookie.

"No, Felicia needs somewhere to sleep."

"So, do we need an umbrella and this…beach shelter thing?"

"Yes."

I gave up after that and just tried to make it all fit so we wouldn't have to leave Felicia at home in order to take the cooler with us.

I got back inside to find Sookie applying sunblock to Amelia and Felicia who seemed to be dressed in swimsuits that would have last been in style in about 1900.

"Do you like my togs Eric? They've got flowers on them!" Amelia asked.

"Um, yeah. They're…great." I said. Fuck, I hoped Sookie wasn't going to be dressed like that.

"The sun's pretty harsh here so they have to be covered up" Sookie said "it's just a shame no one knew that when I was a kid, or I could have avoided having all these freckles", she gestured to her arms and chest. I kind of liked her freckles.

"So, do you want me to do you?" she asked, brandishing an aerosol can, which I guess was the sunblock.

"Sookie, you can do me anytime." I said.

She didn't say anything, but lifted my t-shirt and sprayed the sunblock onto my stomach.

"Fuck!" I yelled, jumping back. "That's freezing."

Sookie shrugged. "Yeah, for some reason it's supposed to be cooling. Although surely you only need that if you're already sunburnt, which kind of defeats the purpose. So come on, lose the shirt and we'll get this over with."

"Somehow knowing what you're going to do with that shit takes all the romance out of that statement" I grumbled.

Sookie just giggled, in a slightly fucking evil way. She was enjoying this way too much. She started spraying and I flinched again, causing more evil cackles. I steeled myself, just hoping this would be over with soon.

When Sookie was done I held my hand out for the can. "Your turn" I said.

"No, I've already put some on."

"Cheat." I said. Sookie just laughed.

"So are we ready to go?" I asked.

"Just about, I just need to make sure I've got everything…"

I left Sookie going over her list and put the kids in the car.

Finally we were ready to leave. Amelia was beyond excited by now and she managed to keep up the chatter as we drove out over the Harbour Bridge. I had to admit, if only to myself, that the weather was fantastic and the water looked pretty inviting in the sun.

When we reached our destination, it became clear we weren't the only ones with the idea of going to the beach today, but Sookie managed to find a carpark after a couple of minutes. Sookie took the kids off to find a spot, while I started trying to pull all the shit that I'd jammed in earlier back out of the car.

By the time we were all set up with picnic rug, beach shelter and umbrella we could have practically camped there if required. But apparently it was all necessary and important. I went back to the car to get another load of stuff, while Amelia shouted "I need my bucket and spade!" at me.

Once I had finally retrieved all the contents of the car, I helped Amelia with her building project. Sookie was trying to interest Felicia in the sand, but it wasn't any more popular than the grass.

Sookie was looking fucking good, although I was disappointed she wasn't wearing a bikini. I'd suggested it and been met with a lot of eye-rolling. She was in what was apparently a tankini. And shorts that weren't coming off because 'no one wants to see the tops of my thighs Eric!' Yeah, there was no good answer to comments like that, so I just shut up at that point.

It was getting warmer, so once Amelia and I had finished most of her castle, Sookie wanted to 'go for a paddle'. So we all trooped down to the water, Sookie carrying Felicia and my holding on to Amelia's hand.

Sookie walked straight in up to her knees, whereas I put one foot in and stopped. The water may have looked inviting, but it was fucking freezing.

Amelia looked up at me. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Sookie, who was crouching down to put poor Felicia's toes in the water, looked over. "Is it too cold for you?" she asked.

"No…I'm just making sure Amelia's OK."

Amelia looked at me and then sat down in the water with a splash, which was unpleasant. Sookie laughed at me, while dealing with Felicia who was trying to climb back up Sookie like she was a monkey. "Oh Eric" she said "Harden up for goodness' sake! This is quite warm!"

Felicia really had the right idea I thought. I took a step away from Amelia who was splashing with abandon now. Sookie waded over and handed me Felicia. "Here" she said "you take Felicia back to the shade and I'll stay here with Amelia."

I took Felicia out of her arms and headed back up the beach. I'm pretty sure Felicia looked grateful. Well, she wasn't crying at any rate, so that was a fucking good sign.

After a while Amelia and Sookie came back to join us and it was time for lunch. We had a sticky moment where I thought I'd left something behind because I had no fucking idea that the chilly bin Sookie was asking me about was the cooler that I had jammed in with everything else, but luckily Sookie's panic at not being able to feed everyone was only passing.

The beach was quite busy now. Lots of other family groups, all with the kids wearing various designs of the same neck to knee outfits Amelia and Felicia had on. There were a few young people here and there, and I could see one or two elderly couples walking up and down.

Sookie looked over at me "Who are you checking out?" she asked.

I frowned. "No one." I wasn't, there wasn't anyone else here half as hot as Sookie. Most of the other mothers seemed to have given up and retreated into middle age, but Sookie, well, Sookie looked fucking amazing.

"Yeah, yeah. Of course you're not." Sookie winked at me, which just really made me pissed. Why would I be checking out other women if I was with her?

"No, I'm really not." I was getting a bit louder now, but I didn't care.

Sookie held her hands up in surrender. "Fine, you're not then." She looked over at Amelia who'd gone back to the sandcastle. Unfortunately she'd just been eating watermelon and if she kept on going, there was going to be more sand stuck to her than there was on the beach.

"Come on Amelia, let's go and rinse you off in the sea" Sookie said. She kicked off her flip-flops and took Amelia's off, but they'd only taken a few steps before Amelia yelled "Ow, it's really hot!"

"OK then" said Sookie, "we'll have to run" and they took off down the beach.

Sookie running down the beach was quite a good look, but I wasn't the only one who noticed. Some guy with his two kids who was sitting just down from us was staring at Sookie as she disappeared down the beach. Fucker. His wife was right there too, I bet she was fucking thrilled with him acting as though he was getting his own personal live-action Baywatch.

Sookie and Amelia ran back while I was still staring at him. "What's wrong?" Sookie asked, towelling Amelia down.

"Nothing. Just some total douche staring at you."

Sookie turned around, but of course he was now talking to his wife. "No, he's not" she said.

"Well not now. But he was." Sookie gave me a funny look. "What? He fucking was."

"Eric!" Sookie said, nodding at Amelia.

"Yeah, OK. But he was staring at you as if you were there for his own personal entertainment."

Sookie sighed and sat down. She gave me a look which suggested she thought I was making all this shit up.

"I don't know why you're so prepared to think that I might be looking at anything with boobs, and you can't accept that some other fucking loser is looking at you. You're hot, and you were running on the beach in a swimsuit. What did you fucking expect?"

Sookie started to say something else, but then stopped and just bit her lip. She looked over the other guy quickly, and then looked back at me. "Really? He was looking?" she asked.

"Yes" I said, thankful that I was finally getting through to her.

"Huh" she smiled slightly. OK that wasn't the reaction I wanted. Where was her righteous indignation? Shouldn't she come over all feminist or shit like that?

She looked at me. "Of course I really only want you to watch me when I run up the beach" she said, and she kissed me. I didn't really believe that for a fucking second, but it was a fucking hot kiss, so I'd let it slide. She pulled back, "just don't do anything stupid Eric; you were looking murderous when I got back here."

"Mmm-hmm" I said, mostly listening but watching her cleavage at the same time.

It was time to replenish the sunblock apparently, and the cooling stuff was no less unpleasant now that I was hotter from sitting outside. Still, I finally got my chance to put some on Sookie and I made the most of rubbing the bits of skin she'd let me touch, she wasn't buying the idea that her boobs probably needed sunblock as well.

After everyone had been re-covered, Sookie took Felicia off in the stroller for a walk to put her to sleep and I went back to helping Amelia. Sookie was back pretty shortly and parked the stroller under the trees in the shade so Felicia could snooze in peace. I was feeling pretty tired myself and left Amelia to finish filling the castle's moat and I lay down on the rug. Sookie lay down at right angles to me, with her head on my stomach, watching Amelia run back and forth from the water, which was getting closer now the tide was coming in.

The next thing I knew Sookie was sitting next to me, with Felicia on her lap, nudging me in the side. "Wake up!" she said brightly.

"Not asleep" I mumbled.

"I think we need to talk about your definition of asleep" she said. I opened an eye and looked at her. "So do you want to go and take Amelia to buy an ice cream at the dairy?"

I looked over at Amelia, who was hovering expectantly. "Yeah, OK" I said, and we set off. The sun was beating down now and by the time we walked back to Sookie and Felicia, at the snail's pace that Amelia walked, most of her ice cream had melted all over her. She didn't seem to mind though, and it just meant that she got another dip in the sea to clean off. Sookie asked if I wanted to go too, but I pointed to Felicia and said I'd better stay with her. It just seemed mean to put a baby in all that cold water.

When they got back Sookie took Amelia's swimsuit off and dressed her, then did the same for Felicia. I guess it was nearly time to go home. Sookie then turned to me and said "I'm just going for a proper swim, can you watch these two?"

"Oh, OK." So the three of us sat on the rug and Sookie ran back down to the water. She must have been feeling more confident because she'd even taken off the shorts that weren't supposed to have come off at all. I looked over. Yeah, the same fucker was watching her again, along with a younger guy who'd arrived not long ago with his girlfriend.

Realising I couldn't get caught looking I went back to watching Sookie. At first I couldn't spot her, which was a fucking worry. I really didn't think my life-saving skills were going to be up to scratch if she was drowning out there. But then I spotted her out past the waves, swimming parallel to the beach.

Amelia sighed "Will Mum be much longer?" she asked.

"Probably not" I said. Yeah, I was feeling hot and tired too.

Not too much longer I watched Sookie swimming in towards the shore. She looked like some kind of exotic mermaid or something as she emerged from the water, dripping wet, and then ran up the beach. I decided I didn't even want to fucking count the audience she had for the front view of that.

She grabbed her towel and started drying off. "Wow, that feels so much better" she said.

"Yeah…you're a really good swimmer" I blurted out.

She shrugged. "I come from an island in the South Pacific, it probably pays to be."

"But your parents?" I asked, before realising it might be a question she didn't want to answer, but she didn't seem bothered.

"Well Dad could swim, but Mum, not really. She never wanted to get her hair wet. So probably that didn't help, he would have been trying to save her. Jason and I had lessons though so we're not bad. And we had a swimming pool at home as kids. At the very least, I know I float. Right, I'll dry in the car, let's get everybody packed up."

Amelia and Felicia fell asleep on the way home, hot and tired as they were. Sookie sighed, "I should wake them up so they'll sleep tonight, but it feels mean" she said.

I snorted. "You wake me up though!"

"Yeah, well. I let you sleep for a bit. Honestly you're worse than Bob at falling asleep in the sun!"

When we got home Sookie woke everyone up and there were tears from Felicia and general grumpiness from Amelia. I unpacked the trunk and dragged Sookie's stuff into the house.

Sookie was putting stuff away in the kitchen, still in her swimsuit with a towel around her hips, when Amelia said "Can Eric do my bath tonight?"

Sookie looked at me, "Do you mind?" she asked, looking at me. "I could finish here and then get us a quick dinner if you take the pair of them off for a bath?" I looked from Sookie to Amelia; both of them were looking at me expectantly.

"Yeah, no problem" I said. "Come on, Amelia", I picked Felicia up.

"Thanks heaps" said Sookie, "I'll bring their clean pjs in to you. Just make sure Amelia doesn't try to drown Felicia, some of her cuddles get a bit enthusiastic."

Thankfully Felicia seemed to like the bath a lot more than the sea and she was soon splashing away, which just encouraged Amelia to do the same. When Sookie brought their stuff in, she took one look at how wet I was and just shook her head as she retreated.

Dinner was grilled cheese sandwiches which Sookie had made while I was in the bathroom and both kids were rubbing their eyes by this time, even though it was earlier than their normal bedtime. "It's all that sea air" said Sookie "gets them every time. Well, that and the late night last night I guess."

Once they were tucked away Sookie looked at me. "I feel sticky and sandy and salty and gross, I'm going to take a shower."

"You know I think I do too."

"Fine, come on then."

The shower was still cramped for the two of us, but Sookie didn't complain as much as she used to. She especially didn't complain that much about my cock poking her, which was a fucking good thing as I'd been teased all day by the sight of her in swimwear and it had been a fucking mammoth effort not to get too worked up on the beach. Now I didn't have to worry, so I just concentrated on touching as much of her wet, naked skin as I could.

I was busy washing her when I noticed the red patches on her back. "You should have let me put your sunblock on" I said "you missed some bits of your back."

"Ow, yeah. It feels like it. I never do manage to escape sunburn completely. Maybe I need one of those suits like the kids?"

"No you fucking don't" I said, and kissed her.

"Well I guess maybe you'll have to rub some lotion on it for me before bed."

"That sounds good."

Sookie stepped out of the shower and, after getting the worst of the water off herself, went into the bedroom, still wearing just her towel. When I joined her she was lying on the bed on her stomach holding up a bottle of lotion. "There you go" she said.

I took it from her and poured some into my hands. I thought about just putting it on her cold, but I didn't want to ruin the mood so I rubbed it between my hands before rubbing it into her shoulders and back.

"Mmmm" she murmured "that's very good". I moved down to her ass and spent some time rubbing there as well. Sookie shifted a bit, rubbing her thighs together. I started placing kisses where my hands had been.

"Turn over" I whispered into her ear, and she did. I took more lotion and set to work on her front, even though it had completely escaped sunburn. Her freckles were more pronounced though and I kissed the trail of them along her collar bone, before moving my mouth down to her nipples, taking over from the hands I'd been using to massage her breasts. She sighed and arched her back.

I kissed down her stomach, but instead of parting her legs for me, Sookie sat up on her elbows. I looked up at her. "Your turn" she said, picking up the lotion.

She eyed my erection. "Um, maybe sit on the edge of the bed and I'll do your back." I did as I was asked and she rubbed lotion across my back. I may not have been sunburnt, but it still felt good on my skin. "Stand up" Sookie commanded, and I did. She rubbed my butt, while pressing her breasts into my lower back. Fuck. I wasn't sure how much longer I could last.

"Right, let's do your front" she said. I lay back down and Sookie worked lotion over my chest and arms, then down my thighs, finally placing her hand around my cock and stroking me. I reached over to get a condom out of the drawer and Sookie took it out of my hand before rolling it on. It felt so much better when she did it.

She lay back on the bed and I rolled on top of her, lying between her legs. "Oh, Eric" she moaned, "I'm so ready." Yeah, I was pretty fucking ready too. Between the shower and the massages I was almost ready to explode there and then. I entered her and lay there, still, for a moment. Sookie, however, started moving under me.

"Fuck, Sookie. No fair trying to milk me." She giggled, but stopped, thank fuck, as I didn't think she'd appreciate me being quite that quick.

I started to move and Sookie joined in, with her feet placed flat on the bed and her hips grinding up against me. A few strokes in she was clamping down on me and moaning as she came. I stilled until she opened her eyes to look at me, and then I began moving again. "You" I said "are so fucking hot Sookie. You have no idea what the sight of you in that swimsuit was doing to me on the beach."

"You're not so bad yourself" she said, breathlessly.

"So hot. So fucking hot" I repeated. Sookie just panted, and then she started to moan again as another orgasm hit her. This time I didn't stop, but just kept thrusting as she gripped my shoulders and squeezed my hips with her thighs. I used one hand to grab her fantastic ass and I came, hard. "Fuck" I groaned, resting my forehead against Sookie's for a moment, before pulling out and going to get rid of the condom.

When I got back Sookie was getting into bed, naked, which was a real fucking treat. I joined her and she stretched out. "I don't know what it is" she said "but something about the sand, and the water always turns me on, and just makes me want to be naked."

I propped up on one elbow to look at her "Really?" I asked.

"Yup, makes me feel all tingly."

I lay back down behind her, and ran my hand along her hip. "Fuck, we should go to the beach more often."

"Yeah, maybe."

Sookie drifted off, but I lay there awake. I trailed my hand up from her hip to cup her breast. I looked at the clock, it was still quite early. I was pretty sure if I let her doze for a bit while I recovered there might be more sex on offer tonight. I was just bummed I had to go to work this week; otherwise I might have been taking Sookie back to the beach. Several times. Fuck, I didn't think it was possible but I thought that maybe Sookie just got hotter. Who the fuck knew scratchy sand and freezing cold water could be an aphrodisiac?

Sookie stirred and rolled over onto her back. Right, I thought as my hand trailed down her stomach, time to try for round two.

**A/N So here we use togs exclusively for swimwear and rarely say anything else. So if the SVM books were set in New Zealand, Tara would be selling bikinis exclusively. Which might please Sookie, but probably isn't going to have a huge clientele in Bon Temps.**

**Thanks for reading!**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N Hello again, from the Land of the Long White Cloud (that's what Aotearoa, the Maori name for New Zealand means). I had a request for some links to clips which would give you guys an idea of the Nu Zild accent (What accent? Isn't it just how normal people sound?). So I will be sticking some links on my profile if you're at all interested. **

**Disclaimer: Definitely not mine. **

EPOV

I'd guessed I wouldn't need an alarm to wake up given that we had Amelia and Felicia, but what actually woke me up was hearing Sookie yell "For God's sake Bob!" from somewhere in the house.

I passed a chastened looking Bob on my way to find Sookie. She was in the living room staring at a small, orange blob on the floor. "We don't kill other pets!" she yelled at Bob's retreating figure. Wow, this was the most upset I'd seen her over any of Bob's 'presents'. I thought it was probably what the stupid cat deserved, but I guessed my comments wouldn't be welcome.

Amelia appeared and looked at Bob's victim. "Is that Nemo?" she asked, looking at Sookie.

"Uh, no" I said, scooping it up, as Sookie just seemed a bit stunned. "It's just…another fish."

"Where'd it come from?"

"Bob brought it in."

"From where?"

"I don't know."

"Why not?"

"Because Bob can't talk!"

Amelia sighed and wandered off. I turned to Sookie, "What should I do with this?" I asked.

Sookie shrugged. "Bin, I guess. Poor thing. God, I hope he hasn't found an uncovered fish pond he can pillage."

Yeah, I fucking hoped so too. There were only so many small, slimy offerings I wanted to have to deal with.

I was getting myself some toast when Sookie joined me. "So, do you need a shirt ironed for this morning?"

"Nah, its fine. I've only just got them back from the cleaners."

Sookie looked surprised. "You took shirts to the drycleaners? That must have cost a fortune! Seriously, I would have washed them for you."

"No, it's all good."

Sookie looked at me like I was a fucking retard, but let it drop.

By the time I was ready to leave, Sookie was shepherding Amelia towards the car while carrying Felicia. I debated with myself whether to help her out by taking Felicia from her, and the likelihood of getting something sticky on my suit as a result. In the end I did, and managed to escape with just getting a drooled-on hand rubbed over my cheek.

Sookie was quiet on the drive into the city, sticking to muttering about the buses that were apparently out to get her. Amelia more than made up for it of course, and kept up a running commentary on what she could see outside the window, and what Felicia was doing when she couldn't think of anything else. The traffic was heavier than I was used to, but it still wasn't that bad and it only took about 25 minutes to get there.

Sookie pulled up outside the office building and parked in a loading zone. "Um, what time do you want me to pick you up and take you to the car yard?" she asked.

"Oh, don't worry about it. I'll get a cab."

"Are you sure? That's going to cost an awful lot of money."

"Yeah, it's fine." I glanced at the backseat. "Don't drag everyone out again today."

"OK, well have a good day and we'll see you tonight."

I kissed her. "Yep, Bye." I turned to the backseat "Bye, guys."

"Bye Eric!" Amelia yelled, and then I was out the door and off inside.

I thought I'd buy coffee on my way in, and, while I was waiting in line I looked across at the large cruise ship which was now parked at the wharf across the road. Unlike last time, I didn't feel any desire to run across the road and stow away. Although I guessed if Sophie-Anne turned into a bitch later on I might be tempted. But only if I could take Sookie with me.

I took the elevator upstairs to reception and they phoned Sophie-Anne to come and meet me.

"Morning Eric" she said, her heels clacking across the floor as she walked over.

"Morning Sophie-Anne" I said, figuring we might as well start off at least pretending to be pleasant.

"Right, well, let's get you set up then." She walked off and I followed. After a quick stop at Karen's desk to get me a new access card we continued on to the main office.

"So I was thinking" said Sophie-Anne, as she was walking, "that it's not worth tying up a whole meeting room just for you, and as you'll be working so closely with Andre, the best place for you to sit is probably…there." We'd now stopped and she pointed to a desk. The desk that had been Sookie's. The desk that was next to fucking Andre, who was looking at me as though he wanted me dead. Fucking fantastic.

"Sure, fine." I said, moving over to put my laptop bag on the desk.

"Andre, you'll show Eric what you've been doing I assume?" Sophie-Anne gave him a pointed look.

"Yes, whatever you want Sophie-Anne" Andre said between clenched teeth. I looked from Andre to Sophie-Anne and back again. Fuck, something was going on there and I wanted to stay the hell away from it.

Sophie-Anne stalked off, obviously she had something more important to do and I was left with Andre, who promptly stood up announced he had a meeting, and walked off as well. I sat down and started trying to set up my laptop, having fuck all else to do.

While I was waiting for Andre I checked my email. Apparently I had an appointment with a counsellor in the New Year. It probably wasn't a good sign that the best part of the day so far was finding out that I was going into therapy.

SPOV

I watched Eric walking up the stairs to the office after he got out of the car and was immediately hit with a wave of loneliness.

"Where'd Eric go?" asked Amelia.

"Work" I said, looking in the wing mirror and preparing to pull back into the street.

"Why?"

"Because he had to." Or wanted to. Or both. I told myself not to feel rejected, he'd have to work sometime. But I liked having him to myself and it was hard to let go.

"Will Sophie-Anne be there?"

"Probably" I said. Well at least that stopped me feeling sad without Eric, now I was just worried about Sophie-Anne getting her hooks into him.

"She's my friend."

"Uh-huh." I missed being 3, when everyone was your friend. Well, most people anyway.

"Where are we going now Mummy?"

"Home."

"Home's borin'"

"No it's not, it will be fine."

Amelia was right though, it was very boring without Eric. I missed having him to talk to. If I hadn't had to take two kids into the city and pay for parking, I would have considered going in to have lunch with him, but it wasn't worth the effort. In the end I did put them in the car but we just went to the zoo for an hour or so in the afternoon. It was hot out in the sun, but at least Amelia got to run around for a bit and look at whatever animals weren't sleeping in their houses.

I wondered how I ever managed to entertain two kids all day every day through the winter when we were all stuck inside. We had ice cream at the café, where Amelia introduced Felicia and me to the people sitting at the next table, and then we all headed home to wait for Eric.

EPOV

Andre was still fucking AWOL when Sophie-Anne arrived after lunch. "So, how's it going?" she asked me.

"Very slowly without Andre" I said, gesturing to his empty seat. "I've made a start, but I really need him to tell me where he got stuck."

Sophie-Anne frowned. "Oh, I see. Right, well he should be back soon". She perched on the edge of the desk, which wasn't a good fucking sign. I really didn't want to chat to her.

"So, I take it you're playing dad to Sookie's kids now then?"

"Well, not really."

"You all looked…cosy when I saw you on Friday."

I held back a laugh, thinking about just how flustered Sophie-Anne had looked. "Amelia really likes you" I said. "She named one of her Barbie dolls after you apparently."

Sophie-Anne wrinkled her nose. "Oh" she said,

"Yeah, it's a huge compliment I believe." I was trying not to smirk. Sophie-Anne looked like she was mulling it all over.

"Hmmm, well. I guess she's…alright. For a child." Sophie-Anne said the word child like it was something you scraped off your shoe.

"She's great" I said. "They both are."

Sophie-Anne just stared at me, like I'd grown another fucking head or something.

"I just don't see what the big deal is about children" she snorted "I mean, anyone can have them. Anyone" she paused and then gathered her thoughts. "I'll leave you to it then." With that she stalked off again. She was a fucking odd woman.

Eventually Andre arrived back. He looked like he was sulking so I wondered if Sophie-Anne had tracked him down and sent him back. "So Andre" I said, "can we perhaps do some fucking work now?"

"Sure, Eric" he spat. "Whatever you want."

I bit my tongue, just wanting to get this over with. I was so looking forward to getting home to Sookie.

It was several hours later before I got there, however. Sookie was right; taking a cab from the city to Greenlane cost a fuck-load of money and was an exercise in torture during rush hour. But my car was ready, so that was something. Although finding my way back to Sookie's without GPS was an adventure. By the time I got there I was hot, tired, bored, hungry and fucking grumpy.

SPOV

I heard Eric's key in the door, as we were sitting down to eat. "Eric's home!" Amelia yelled. Yeah, I guess she felt like I did. I was tempted to yell too, but instead I stood up and hugged him. He'd lost not only his jacket, but his tie at some point during the day and he was looking tired and dishevelled.

"Hey" I said "Sit down and I'll get you some dinner."

"Thank you, I'm starving."

"No you're not" piped up Amelia "you're just a bit hungry." It was a pretty good imitation of me and Eric burst out laughing.

"So how did it go?" I asked, putting a plate in front of him and sitting back down.

"OK. Andre's a fu…, uh, complete pain in the ass. But I guess you already knew that." I nodded. "And Sophie-Anne was, well, OK for Sophie-Anne I guess."

"You saw Sophie-Anne? Was she wearing a dress?" said Amelia. Great, Sophie-Anne's fan club lived at my house.

"Uh, I don't really know" Eric said between mouthfuls. Amelia huffed and went back to picking through her food.

"I don't like mushrooms" she said.

"Just eat round them" I told her, before turning back to Eric and asking "So you think it will take the week to do everything?" I hoped he would say that he only needed to be there for two hours tomorrow and it would be done, but instead he nodded yes.

"Yeah, Andre's no help at all and he's the one that's been trying to re-work it all, so yeah, it's going to take at least the next four days. Maybe more if he continues to hinder me."

"Oh, right." I wasn't thrilled with that news but there wasn't much I could do about it.

Eric finished first, even though he'd started after the rest of us. He leaned back in his chair. "This is better though" he announced.

"Better?" I asked.

"Yeah, better than living in a hotel. It's nice to have somewhere to actually come home to". He thought for a minute and then I saw a flash of panic across his face as he obviously realised what he'd said. He stood up quickly to take his plate into the kitchen.

I turned in my seat to face him across the breakfast bar. "Well, we're glad you're home now, aren't we Amelia."

Amelia nodded. "Home's borin'" she said solemnly.

Eric just continued to look a bit like a deer caught in the headlights and mumbled something about going to get changed.

When Amelia had finished, I cleared up in the kitchen and got Felicia's bottle ready for her. Eric re-appeared looking more like himself in a t-shirt and cargo shorts. Amelia threw herself at him and said "Do my bath!"

"Oh, yeah. But um, do you want to look at my car first?"

"Yeah!" she squealed, and the pair of them headed out the front door to the driveway. I finished up then went out, holding Felicia. Amelia was sitting in the driver's seat, pretending to drive.

"Wow, it's, um…big." I said. I knew nothing about cars. It was black, it was an SUV. There wasn't much more I could say.

Eric snorted. "That could be useful with the amount of shit you pack to go out."

"What? That's only because I have kids and they have a lot of stuff. It's not me at all."

Eric looked at me. "You forget I've seen your handbag" he said.

"Again, it's the _kids_. I have to carry all sorts of stuff for them."

Eric just chuckled. Amelia stuck her head out "Can we go for a ride?" she asked.

"No, hun" I replied "Eric doesn't have any car seats in his car. You're not allowed to drive in it."

"But I want to!"

"Well you can't."

"Well, that's not fair."

Amelia got down, with a bit of help from Eric, and stomped off into the house.

"I think that means she likes it" I said, waiting for Eric to lock the car back up again.

"Yeah. Do you think I should get car seats?" he asked.

"Well…I don't know. I guess we can always move the ones out of my car if we really needed to."

"Yeah, that seems like a lot of work though. Maybe I'll look into it."

We walked back inside so I could get Felicia's bottle and Eric could, it appeared, do bathtime.

EPOV

I'd been feeling a bit bored hanging out at Sookie's fulltime, but I wasn't sure that I had properly appreciated it until I left to go to work. The feeling of actually getting home and being able to leave all that shit behind was indescribable. Plus I arrived home in time for dinner, which was a bonus.

I was worried I'd fucked up though when I told Sookie it was home. I wasn't sure she wanted me to call this home yet. We hadn't really spoken any more about me getting my own place other than saying I should wait until after Christmas. Was that still what she expected? I had no fucking clue. Amelia might be pissed though if I wasn't there for bath time, which seemed to be my new job.

I felt like I should be issued wet weather gear or something for it, the amount of splashing that went on, but Sookie said that was normal. There was also a small flotilla of plastic ducks that needed to be in the water with them, and from what I could gather from Amelia they were a family and under no circumstances was Felicia allowed to touch any of them. Consequently Felicia spent the entire bath trying to grab any duck that floated near her and put it in her mouth. The two of them together were fucking hard work.

We were just finishing up and Amelia was rattling off the names of the ducks, which appeared to be a mixture of names of people she knew and names that were completely made up, when Sookie appeared with clean pyjamas and a diaper for Felicia. I wasn't really listening to what Amelia was saying anymore, but Sookie turned from where she was dressing Felicia and pointed to the largest duck, "What did you say his name was?" she asked Amelia.

"Eric" Amelia replied, "and the pink one is Sookie, and this one's Arabessa, and this one's Lee-lee, and that's Maisiemillie"

"Right" said Sookie. "Interesting."

"Why is that interesting?" I asked.

She leaned over and whispered "Because I'm pretty sure that one used to be called Bill."

"Huh" yeah that was interesting. I had no fucking clue what it meant. Other than that we were all in the shit now if Sookie kicked me out. I guess Amelia would be on my side if it did happen. Well, I hoped she would.

When the kids were in bed, Sookie and I sat on the bed and watched TV for a bit. I was feeling quite relaxed now, having Sookie snuggled into my side helped a fucking lot with that feeling.

"So, was it really alright? Sophie-Anne wasn't a problem?" she asked.

"No, really. She was fine. Andre was more of a fucking problem, but like you once told me, I've had to handle bigger assholes."

She snorted. "I would have said _arse_hole, thank you very much."

We sat for a bit longer and then she said "Its fine you know."

"What's fine?"

"You calling this home. It's fine." She didn't say anything else, so I just said "Great" and we left it at that. There was silence until the programme we were watching finished and I refused to let Sookie watch some stupid fucking cooking show. I had better things we could be doing, and I wanted her full attention. She did her best to pretend to be annoyed but from the amount of giggling and sighing she was doing, it was pretty fucking obvious she wasn't. Well, not _that_ annoyed anyway.

**Thanks for reading!**


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N Hello again! I had a request for a timeline for this story. So where we're up to at the beginning of this chapter is about a week into December (say the 7th), and it's the fifth week that Eric has spent at Sookie's (counting from when he first turned up on her doorstep on a Monday evening). So I hope that helps!**

**Disclaimer: Still not mine.**

EPOV

The drive into the city was a lot quieter with just me in the car. It hadn't been quiet when I left Sookie arguing with Amelia over a pair of shorts, while Felicia took the opportunity to make a lunge towards the Barbies. I walked out the door to the sound of Amelia interrogating Sookie about where I was going, I guess she thought that maybe work was a one-off thing.

Unsurprisingly I had managed to beat Andre to the office, when I got there his desk was empty and his laptop switched off. I set up my laptop and then had a go at booting up the PC on the desk I was using. Fuck, that took forever. How on earth did Sookie ever get any work done?

Eventually Andre showed up, looking like he had a stick up his ass as usual. He pointedly ignored me while switching on his laptop. We were doing such a great job of pretending the other didn't exist, that I was almost shocked when Andre actually spoke to me. Apparently I'd been given access to the bank's systems, which meant I could finally get a good look at what Andre had actually been trying to do. If anything. He still seemed to spend a fuck-load of his time placing bets and keeping up with various scores on the internet. How he managed to hold down a job I didn't know.

It was soon pretty apparent that Andre had completely fucked up what he was trying to achieve, at least as far as what Sophie-Anne had told me Peter wanted. Fuck, I was basically going to have to start again. This meant I needed some new data. Which, of course, meant I was stuck asking the dumb-ass next to me.

"Andre" I said, turning towards him.

"Yes" he said, continuing to stare at his screen.

"I need some more extracts; if I give you the details can you get them for me? Today?"

Andre sighed and muttered something under his breath. "Yeah, but I'll have to do it later on. I have a meeting in a few minutes." With that he grabbed some papers and stood up and walked off.

Fan-fucking-tastic I thought. Where was Sookie when you needed her?

SPOV

Amelia seemed convinced that Eric was hiding something from her, as she wouldn't stop asking where he was going. Even after I told her for the fiftieth time he was going to work. I swear she didn't believe me, but I'm not sure what she thought was really happening. Whatever it was, I was pretty sure she thought it was my fault.

I finally deposited her at pre-school where she immediately ran off to help one of the teachers in the little vegetable garden they were all growing, Felicia and I quite quickly forgotten.

When I got home I was at a bit of a loss. "Do you want to go to Pak N Save?" I asked Felicia.

"Bubbubbubbubbaa" was the only reply I got to that statement. I even missed Eric telling me it was a dumb idea and we should just order on the internet.

Before we went though I had an idea. I pulled out my mum's old cookbook, the one where she'd written down all the recipes she thought were really good, and I found the one I wanted. Gran's Prizewinning Christmas Cake. And it was, she had won a prize for it, sometime long before I was born. And this year, I thought, I'd have a go at making it. Although it did look kind of complicated, and required a lot of fruit. Much of which would need to be soaked.

Still, I added the ingredients to my shopping list and headed back out with Felicia in tow.

EPOV

Andre eventually re-appeared, by which time I'd made as comprehensive a list as I could, of what it was I actually needed. I hoped that if I wrote it down even Andre couldn't fuck it up too much.

He didn't appreciate the gesture however and stared at the piece of paper I handed him as if it was going to self-destruct any second. I fought back the urge to tell him to just do some work for fuck's sake.

I was sitting there trying to ignore the sighing and shuffling coming from Andre's desk, when Sophie-Anne appeared. "How's everything going here?" she asked.

Andre didn't say anything so I just said "Fine, so far. I don't think anything is going to be that difficult." I turned to look at Andre, daring him to disagree. None of it was that difficult and yet he'd managed to fuck it up completely.

"Good, well let me know if you need anything" Sophie-Anne said, in a way which suggested she didn't really want me to. She looked over at Andre and hesitated for a few seconds, then walked off.

When I looked back at Andre he was just glaring after her. He must be a complete fucking retard, surely if you're going to remain an incompetent moron you should keep your head down? The way he was going he was going to get himself fucking fired.

Shit, I hoped if they did get rid of him they wouldn't try to keep me around for longer.

SPOV

I spent the day getting groceries, and doing housework and trying to interest Felicia in a conversation. It was probably a bad move on my part; after all, I remember doing the same thing with Amelia and look where that had got me. Now she wouldn't shut up.

Sure enough when Felicia and I went to pick her up she started asking where Eric was. "Still at work" I replied.

"Really? So when will he be home?"

"Don't know, later on I guess."

"Why don't you know?"

"Because I don't."

Eric arrived home just in time for dinner, which made me happy. Not in the least because I wasn't sure I could sit there at the table with Amelia while she asked another round of questions about where Eric was and when he was coming home.

I was standing in the kitchen and he came over and put his arms around me and just stood there for a while.

"Good day was it?" I asked.

"Yeah, alright I guess." He sighed into my hair.

"OK, well if you let me go I can feed you." He held on for a few more seconds though before stepping back.

Once we sat down to dinner Amelia checked with Eric that he had indeed been to work today, all day, right up until the time he came home, and then finally dropped the subject. Eric was at least starting to perk up a bit; I guess food will do that to you. And the weather was nice, so we could sit with the door open and enjoy the warm breeze. I was definitely a summer person. Well, right up until it gets humid in February and then I find it all a bit sticky and annoying really.

Eric trooped off to do bathtime again. He was really worth his weight in gold at times like that. I'd hated having to get two kids ready for bed and then spend the rest of the evening by myself. Now I not only had help with the kids I had company for me. It was hard to believe in a way how far I'd come in a few weeks.

There was an awful lot of splashing and laughing coming from the bathroom when I went to find out what was happening. I wasn't sure quite what was going on, but it appeared the ducks might have been staging a mutiny and trying to get out of the bath. Whatever Amelia and Eric were playing it was entertaining Felicia who was giggling and splashing with abandon. I just decided I wasn't going to look at the water all over the bathroom I'd cleaned earlier. I could clean it again tomorrow.

When I finally had Eric all to myself I checked with him again that his day had been OK.

"Yeah, it's fine. Andre's a liability, he's liable to fuck himself over if he's not careful, but otherwise it's the same old shit really."

We were lying on the bed and Eric rolled over to face me at that point, and he started to kiss my chest, working his way down to the edge of my tank top. "It would be better if you were there" he murmured.

"What, just so I could do the work for you rather than Andre?" I asked.

"Mmmm, you have a much better work ethic". Eric pushed one of the straps of my tank top down and then pulled my bra cup down as well so he could get access to my nipple.

"I'm not sure I'd be able to work under you without being distracted these days" I said, arching my back as Eric worked my nipple with his mouth.

"Yeah, but they're nice distractions" Eric said trying to pull the other side of my tank top down, but finding that the straps wouldn't give that much. I sat up so I could pull it off instead.

"So would I distract you?" I asked, lying back down on the bed having rid myself of the top half of my clothing.

Eric went back to work on my breasts, while rubbing his erection against my leg. "You always did" he said.

"I did?"

He looked up at me. "Of course you did. From the first moment I saw your ass twitching under the desk I was done for. Now that I'm actually sitting at that desk, it's an image that gets me through a lot of really boring hours waiting for Andre to get his shit together."

"So what you're saying then, is that you don't so much want me to work under you, as to work under your desk?" I asked, looking down at Eric's head. He looked up at me and grinned.

"Now there's an idea. Care to interview for that position?"

EPOV

Wednesday morning I arrived before Andre despite the fact I was running a bit later because Amelia had had a small tantrum about me leaving. It didn't seem to matter that she was going to pre-school, the fact I was leaving before her annoyed her no end. In the finish Sookie had attempted to distract her while telling me to just leave and let her deal with it.

I put my coffee cup down and turned on the PC, listening to it whirr and clunk to life. I turned to look out the window in the meantime. The view from this side of the office wasn't nearly as good as the one I'd had in the meeting room; mostly I could see the carpark next door and a lot of other office buildings. But there was a bit of the harbour on view and I watched a couple of boats for a few minutes.

When I was finally logged in I went to open the files I'd been using the previous day. Except that they weren't there. All that was left was the version Andre had created, the one I'd started with before making any modifications. For a minute I couldn't figure out what the fuck had happened, and then it suddenly became clear. Andre, the fucker had still been here when I'd left. Now that I was storing what I was doing on a shared drive in the bank's own network, he'd had access to it all, and he'd been in and deleted every fucking thing I'd done the previous day.

I finished my coffee and threw the empty cup in the bin in frustration. Fuck. What a fucking waste of my time this was turning out to be.

As I was sitting there fuming Andre appeared. He saw the look on my face and stopped, before obviously deciding to brazen it out and sitting down at his desk.

"Morning Andre" I said.

"Morning" he mumbled back, busying himself with switching his laptop on.

"So I went to bring up the work I'd done yesterday, and guess what, it seems to have disappeared overnight. You wouldn't know how that would have happened, would you?"

Andre shrugged. "Maybe you didn't save anything" he said.

"Yeah, I'm really fucking sure I did. I'm also pretty fucking sure that you're the douchebag that would have deleted it all last night."

Andre looked at me. "Don't blame me for your incompetence, Eric"

"Seriously, Andre? You're calling me incompetent? When they had to spend God knows what to bring me back in here to do this shit because you can't tear yourself away from the internet for five minutes to actually do your fucking job!" I was getting louder and we were starting to get a few stares from the other people in the office.

Now Andre was looking pissed. He turned to me. "You think you're so shit hot, don't you Eric? You think the whole world is going to fall at your fucking feet. You thought you could have them both. Well you know what, you're no better than the rest of us you complete fucking wanker. It won't be long before Sophie-Anne realises that you're nothing more than a pretty face and then she'll have no choice but to hand the entire project back to me and you'll be back on a plane to the States to explain to your bosses exactly how you fucked this all up."

I was beyond angry now, but it was pointless arguing with Andre any longer. I couldn't work with him, he was a fucking loose cannon. I went in search of Sophie-Anne.

I found her coming out of one the larger meeting rooms, along with Peter. "Sophie-Anne, can I have a word?" I asked.

"Umm, well, I really have to…"

"I need to speak to you now, or else this whole project is going down the drain really fucking fast and I'm pretty sure Peter isn't going to be pleased with that."

"Fine. We can talk in here." She gestured to one of the smaller meeting rooms and we went in and shut the door.

"So, Eric. Care to elaborate on what the problem is?"

I snorted. "More like who. Fucking Andre is deliberately sabotaging me. So far he's deleted an entire day's work, and he's done everything else to block me that he can. I can't work like this. If you don't sort it then I'm done. I'll tell Victor that you didn't have the resources available to me and he can take it up with Peter."

Sophie-Anne looked at me, looked down at her hands and then promptly burst into tears. Oh fuck. That was not the reaction I expected at all.

"Um, don't cry…" I said, looking at the door and wondering if I could just assume she was stressed and leave her to it.

"Sorry, it's just, I've done something really stupid and now it's caused this and I don't know how to fix it…" she trailed off into sobs. I just sat and waited. I wasn't comforting her, she wasn't my problem.

Eventually she gathered herself a bit and pulled a tissue out of her pocket, dabbed her eyes and blew her nose. She stared out the window. "When I was first over from Australia, I made a huge mistake. I slept with Andre."

"Oh". Yeah, this was more information that I wanted and I was trying not to get a picture in my head.

"I just wanted to forget the whole thing, obviously. But Andre decided he wanted more. And kept pestering me. So I told him, I told him I wasn't interested because I was seeing you."

I burst out laughing and Sophie-Anne just stared at me. Well, I could appreciate the irony that she was using me to get rid of Andre while I was using Sookie to get rid of her. I'd made the better choice though.

"Thanks for your support, Eric" she snarled, and I stopped.

"Sorry, it's just, well…sorry." I wasn't going to tell her I'd lied.

She continued on. "So he backed off for a while, but then we had the drinks and he saw you with Sookie and I guess put two and two together. And after that he was worse than ever." She started to cry again. "And now he's blackmailing me!"

"How?"

"He said there are…photos. Of me. On his phone. And if I fire him he'll show Peter." She sobbed for a bit, and I looked out the window. Eventually she collected herself. She seemed to have moved on to anger. "I have worked so hard for this career. I have given up _everything_. I could have had children and a family, but no, I wanted to be CFO, and I won't have that little shit Andre take it all away from me."

I brightened a bit at this. She was obviously going to fire him anyway and that would be all our problems solved. "So, what are you going to do?" I asked.

Sophie-Anne looked at me. "You" she said "are going to get hold of his phone and delete those pictures."

"No. No, I'm not. Look this is between you and him and I'm not fucking getting involved in any of this shit. I just want to do the work and finish up. End of fucking story."

Sophie-Anne softened, and looked like she might cry again. Fuck. "Eric, please?" she asked, putting a hand on my arm. "I don't have anyone else I can ask without it getting back to Peter. I don't want him to think I'm incompetent. Once the pictures are gone, then I can start the process of getting rid of Andre for being shit at his job. But until then I'm stuck with him."

I sighed. "But how do you know there aren't any other copies? He could have downloaded them from his phone by now?"

"I don't really" she said. "But given his general lack of ability in most areas, I would be surprised if he had." She looked at me, eyes brimming with tears again. Fuck, I thought, fuck, fuck, fuck. Why couldn't this be fucking simple?

"Fine, OK." I said, pulling my arm back. "If I can get hold of his phone without any hassle then I will, but I'm not stealing it. In the meantime you tell him to cut out the shit he's doing to me."

Sophie-Anne brightened considerably. "Excellent, Eric" she said, sounding as though she was back to her old self. "I knew you'd come through. I look forward to working with you." She looked at her watch. "And if that's all you want to talk about, then I have another meeting to go to." With that she stood up and left the room.

I felt slightly like I'd been played. I ran a hand through my hair and walked back to my desk, ready to start my new career as Sophie-Anne's secret agent.

**Thanks for reading!**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N Enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

EPOV

I waited until it was just Sookie and I before bringing up the events of the day. I figured that after dinner we could watch TV in the bedroom and I'd tell her, but I was momentarily distracted by the pile of clean laundry on the bed.

"Hey, the underpants fairy came!" I said.

"Yup" said Sookie "I think she likes you. You can put your stuff in this drawer if you like rather than keep living out of your bag in the study."

"OK, cool." Huh, I got a drawer. I was moving up in the world.

We sat on the bed and I turned to Sookie. "So, um, I found out something really funny today. You know how I told Sophie-Anne that I was going out, um, sight-seeing with you?" Sookie nodded. "Well, um, it turns out that she told Andre that she was seeing me, to get him to back off…" I trailed off, Sookie hadn't laughed yet.

"So hang on" she said "Andre has a thing for Sophie-Anne?"

"Yeah, well. Apparently she slept with him."

"With Andre? But he's so…yucky." I shrugged. Sookie thought for a minute, gave a little shiver and then said "So how do you even know any of this? Was Andre boasting or something?"

I snorted. "Hardly. The man is a total fucking douchebag. If he talks to me again I might do something I'll regret after he fucking erased all the work I did yesterday."

"He did _what_?"

I sighed. "Deleted my files from the drive. Then tried to say I hadn't saved anything."

"So, was that because of Sophie-Anne?"

"Dunno."

"But I still don't know how you know he slept with her?"

So I went through the story of my conversation with Sophie-Anne ending with the bit where I accidentally somehow became responsible for getting rid of the pictures.

Sookie stared at me. "So…she cried?"

"Yup."

"And then she asked you to steal Andre's phone?"

"Yeah, but I'm just going to wait until he leaves it lying around, then borrow it for a bit."

Sookie went silent again, then turned around and exploded. "I can't believe you fell for that shit! It's the oldest trick in the book, crying to get sympathy."

"What? No, she was really upset." I'm pretty sure she was. I found the crying fucking miserable at any rate. "Anyway, you cry all the time!" As soon as I heard those words I realised that maybe that wasn't the best fucking thing to say. Turns out I was right.

"I cry?" Sookie yelled. "I cry so I'm the same as that, that fucking manipulative cold-hearted bitch-faced slapper! Jesus, Eric. If you get arrested and deported, I'm not going to the airport to see you off." With that she stomped off to the bathroom.

Fuck, I thought. That didn't go well at all. Fucking Sophie-Anne, now Sookie was pissed at me. I started putting my clothes in the drawer Sookie had given me, hoping that I wasn't going to be taking the stuff out soon when Sookie kicked me out. I thought I should really figure out how to get Amelia on my side before that happened.

When I was done I sat on the bed and turned on the TV. I could hear the shower running but I was pretty sure I wasn't invited. After a while the shower turned off and a little while after that Sookie came into the room in her pyjamas. I braced myself for more yelling.

"OK" she said, at a normal volume at least. "OK. I think you're an idiot for doing this for…_her_." She spat out the last word like she couldn't bear to say Sophie-Anne's name.

"I'm not an idiot!" I said. Sookie just looked at me. "Well, I admit it probably wasn't the smartest thing to agree to, but I don't think it makes me a fucking idiot."

"Well, whatever. At any rate just be careful and don't get caught. Has anyone seen you and Andre arguing?"

"Yeah, probably. We were a bit loud yesterday. And there was the time I tipped coffee on him…" I trailed off, realising that was news to Sookie.

"I do not even want to know. But you realise that sets you up of course to be the prime suspect when his phone goes missing? Or if any other random shit happens to him."

"Yeah, so that's why I'm only going to borrow it. And then only if it's easy. I didn't promise anything more to Sophie-Anne."

"She might expect more of course. But it's up to you." We sat in silence for a minute.

"Don't be mad at me" I asked, quietly.

Sookie leaned over and put her head on my shoulder, so I put an arm around her. That felt better anyway. "I'm not mad at you" she said, using a finger to trace patterns on my chest. "I'm mad at Sophie-Anne, and Andre and the whole stupid pile of shit they've dragged you into. I'm just slightly annoyed with you for getting yourself caught up in it."

"Yeah, well. I'm fucking slightly annoyed with myself as well."

"Well, it's nice that we agree on something" Sookie said, looking up at me.

"Can we agree to shut up about this now and do something else?" I said, and I bent down to kiss her.

"Mmmm, OK."

SPOV

I'd had a rather boring day doing laundry and putting fruit in to soak for the Christmas cake I was going to make. I spent a lot of time going "Mum mum mum mum" to Felicia and only getting "Bubbubbubbub" back.

So I'd been really looking forward to having Eric home, but I wasn't really expecting him to have some story about being roped in to steal Andre's phone for Sophie-Anne. I was unbelievably annoyed at all of them really, for creating the whole stupid situation. Why could Sophie-Anne not deal with Andre herself? She was a grown woman and had got herself into the mess. I didn't understand her at all. And I really didn't understand why Eric felt compelled to help her. We'd established she was the benchmark for bitches with the whole 'what would Sophie-Anne do?' thing. Maybe he was scared of her?

So when Eric went to work on Thursday I was more than a bit worried he was going to get himself into a really bad situation and I really, really wanted to go with him. Just to make sure. But he assured me he could look after himself and I had to be content with waving him off, while Amelia grilled me about when she'd get a ride in his car.

I had plans for the day anyway. Christmas shopping, ugh. Last year everyone had cut me a bit of slack because I was heavily pregnant and my husband had abandoned me. But this year…yeah, all of a sudden you realised how many people there were in Bill's family. And I always resented buying stuff for Sarah and Portia who would then cry poor and give me something like homemade biscuits or socks from the $2 shop.

And you didn't even want to know about the presents from Lorena.

I decided Felicia and I would try somewhere further afield and we went to the mall at Sylvia Park instead of St Luke's, just for the change of scene. It was pretty busy though, and that was without the primary schools having broken up for the year. I managed to wangle a 'parents with prams' park though so was feeling pretty pleased with myself.

Until I realised that I'd have to buy Eric a present as well. Crap. What was I going to buy him?

EPOV

I'd learnt my lesson and saved a copy of my work on an external drive before I left on Wednesday, but Andre hadn't tried the same shit again and the copies on the main drive were still there. I assumed Sophie-Anne had told him to cut that shit out, but I wasn't about to ask. I was just going to keep my head down, while trying to keep one eye on Andre's desk to see if he'd wander off and leave his phone.

But of course he fucking didn't. He was either engrossed in his numerous internet activities, or off in a meeting, with his phone. This wasn't going as well as I'd hoped.

At one stage Sophie-Anne turned up while Andre was elsewhere. "So, Eric" she said "Everything going well? Have you had any success with the _special_ project you and I talked about?"

"Nope. Can't get hold of what you want. You might be out of luck."

Sophie-Anne pursed her lips and looked at me. "Well that's disappointing Eric. I thought you'd do better than that."

"I'm not a professional thief, Sophie-Anne." I hissed. I was so over this.

"No, you're not. But you are a professional, so try and think of something. Quickly."

"Maybe you could invite him to a meeting? At the last minute so he forgets the damn thing?"

"Well, we'll see. Maybe. But I'd really prefer not to be involved at all."

Well, I thought, if she wasn't going to help me out just a bit, fuck her.

I went back to my work, Andre was still somewhere else and when I realised someone was standing by my desk again, I was about to tell Sophie-Anne that I hadn't fucking got the phone yet, when I realised it wasn't her, it was Peter.

"So, Eric. Everything going OK?" he said.

"Yeah no problems." Apart from the shit-storm created by your over-sexed and completely self-centred employees who were treating this like their own personal soap opera, it was all business as usual.

"Excellent." I expected him to leave at that point, but instead he sat on the desk. Fuck, I thought, I hope he doesn't want me to get back pictures of him from Sophie-Anne or anything.

"So we're having a client function on Friday night, mainly for the business and corporate clients, and I wondered if you'd like to attend? It's just upstairs in the boardroom. Drinks, nibbles, that sort of thing. The chief economist is going to talk about the prevailing climate and our predictions for the upcoming Reserve Bank announcements and I thought you might like to help us out by answering any questions our customers might have about the States."

Ah, OK. They wanted to roll me out to impress the customers. "Yeah, that sounds good Peter."

"Excellent. I'll get Karen to send you an invitation with the details and I'll see you there."

When I got home Sookie asked almost immediately if I'd got the phone.

"What phone?" asked Amelia.

"Never mind" said Sookie. "Just a phone. So did you?"

"No, no luck there. But I'm nearly through now that Andre isn't trying to sabotage me, so I should be done by Friday. Although I got invited out Friday night."

"Oh, by whom?" Sookie said as she put dinner in front of me. She seemed reluctant to take her hand away from the plate, and I swear she was waiting for me to reply before deciding whether I deserved to be fed or not.

"Peter. He wants me to attend some kind of client thing, talk about the States, or some shit like that. I don't think I have an option."

"Oh, OK". Sookie let go of my plate and sat down. Guess I was OK to eat then. "I was thinking that maybe Sophie-Anne wanted to take you out to celebrate or something."

"We're going to see Sophie-Anne?" asked Amelia, who was trying to follow along.

"No" Sookie and I both replied at once.

"I was only asking" Amelia muttered, before going back to poking her dinner.

Bathtime turned into Amelia repeatedly asking me if I got to see Sophie-Anne when I was at work and what was she wearing. I was getting so sick of the sound of her name, if I never saw her again after this week it would be too soon.

Once the kids were in bed I went to find Sookie. She was in the kitchen peering at the stove. "What's in there?" I asked.

"Christmas cake. Gran's recipe. It takes five hours to cook. I hope to God it's going to be OK as I have no clue what I'm doing with it."

"Smells alright."

"Yeah, but it might taste like feet." She straightened. "Oh, do you want a mince pie, I made those as well?"

"Um, OK.". She handed me a small pie covered in sugar, which I thought was bizarre and I bit into it. "It's not mince." I said.

"Yeah, it's Christmas mince, which is fruit. Not minced beef though, like the mince pie I made I made for dinner the other night."

"That's just confusing."

"Not to me."

"It's nice though."

"Well, have another one. I made tons because I was bored."

I helped myself to another one. They were really only a couple of mouthfuls each. "So what else did you do today?" I asked, starting to make coffee.

"Christmas shopping. It was torture. I have no idea what to buy Bill's sisters, but I think I've got Lorena sorted. I just bought her a nightie. It seemed an appropriate old lady present. Judith says she wanted an espresso maker, so I've got them one of those, and I think I've pretty much done the kids now including my own. Except Glen. What do 8 year old boys like, and don't say porn."

"Um…"

"Yeah, never mind I'll think of something. I've got all those to go through" she gestured to a neatly stacked pile of brochures and catalogues on the kitchen bench "so I can get ideas and work out what's on sale."

"That seems…organised" I said, staring at the pile.

"You wanted to say something else there, didn't you?"

I shrugged and ate another pie instead of answering.

"So is there anything you want for Christmas?" Sookie asked.

"Oh, um…nothing that comes to mind…'

"Well let me know if you think of anything Santa can bring you."

I smiled at her, "I've got you, so how could I possibly need anything else?"

"Hmm, practicing your American smarm for Friday. Good work. Nice deflection too, now I'm stuck thinking of something for you without any help."

I poured the coffee and kissed her. "Distraction on top of deflection, you're really at the top of your game tonight."

"Oh, yes. You know I am. Any other games you want to try?"

"Well, I think there's a Scrabble set around here somewhere…"

"I guess we probably could have a rematch…" I said, remembering the last time we'd played Scrabble at Piha.

"Cool, you bring the coffee through to the living room; I'll go set it up."

Oh, I thought, was she was actually going to make me play Scrabble before we got to the good bit? Well that seemed a bit unfair. Oh well. Maybe I'd win this time. Or I'd let Sookie win. I couldn't decide what would be better.

But, I realised as I glanced again at Sookie's pile of Christmas planning materials, I'd better fucking hurry up and figure out what I was buying her.

"Come on Eric!" I heard her yell. "If you're not here soon I'm hiding all the good letters."

The last time we'd played she'd tried to do that by shoving them all in her bra. I had a feeling the Scrabble playing portion of the evening wasn't going to last very long at all.

**Thanks for reading!**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N Thanks again for all the lovely reviews! I so enjoy seeing what everyone thinks, they really make my day (or night, some of you guys are in really weird time zones!).**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

EPOV

Friday morning I still wasn't getting anywhere fast with grabbing Andre's phone. I'd seen Sophie-Anne walk past a few times and look pointedly in Andre's direction, but there wasn't anything I could do but shake my head. Fuck it. If I couldn't get it by tonight I was done here and they were on their own.

I was slightly distracted anyway by trying to work out what to buy Sookie for Christmas. I had no fucking clue on that front. I went into the kitchen to get coffee and found a group of women discussing what they'd been buying. I decided that maybe they were my best bet.

"So, um, what do you think I should get my, um…wife?" I was pretty sure I thought the word girlfriend, but somehow that didn't come out. No one batted an eyelid though so I assumed I was safe.

"Nothing practical" said one of the women, "I once got a weed trimmer for Christmas."

"I got an iron!" another one shrieked and they all laughed for a bit. Boy, maybe Kiwi guys were absolutely fucking awful at buying presents. I might not have much to live up to.

Once the laughter had died down a third woman turned to me and said "Jewellery. Perfume maybe, but jewellery definitely."

"What kind of jewellery?" I asked. I had no idea what Sookie wanted. I tried to remember what jewellery I'd seen her wear. Not a lot, just some plain gold stuff that was it.

"The expensive kind" the same woman replied, to general laughter, before taking her mug and leaving the kitchen. Well that wasn't much fucking help.

I must have looked completely confused though because one of the women who were left looked at me and said "Just find a good jeweller, there's a nice one on High St you could go to, and see what they have. You're bound to see something."

Well, OK I guess I could do that. If I could figure out where High St was.

I was heading back to my desk, when I spied Sophie-Anne off down the other end of the office talking to someone. I went over to get her attention.

"Eric. Good news?"

"Not yet" I said, leading her away from the other desks. "I think we need a plan."

Sophie-Anne sighed. "I really don't like this 'we' business. I thought we agreed you would do it and I could keep out of it."

"Sorry, but no. I can't do anything without a distraction. So listen, I'll go back and sit down and try to knock the phone off his desk onto the floor, then you come by in a couple of minutes and tell him you need him to come with you right now. And then keep him busy for 15 minutes or so."

Sophie-Anne rolled her eyes. "And what am I supposed to talk to him about for 15 minutes?"

"I don't fucking know! Doesn't he work here? Don't you have something you could ask him to do?"

She sighed. "Well, I guess we could over some of the final budgets for next year…"

"Yep, whatever. Just keep him occupied. Right, I'm going back now, I'll see you shortly."

"Fine."

I went back to my desk to find Andre scowling at his fantasy football picks. Hopefully that would distract him. He made a point of ignoring me, which I hoped would work in my favour.

His phone was still in the same position it had been earlier, when he'd thrown it down in disgust after a whispered conversation with, I assumed, the girlfriend. Didn't sound as though things were going well there. No fucking surprise really. It was near enough to the edge of the desk I was using that I thought I could probably get away with this.

I started moving things around as though I was looking for something. Andre glanced my way briefly, gave me a look that said he thought I was a fucking idiot, then went back to what he was doing. I picked up a stack of papers and while pretending to look underneath it, used it to scoop the phone off the desk and onto the floor, where I trapped it with my foot. I then pretended to find what I was looking for in my laptop bag and went back to work.

Sure enough Sophie-Anne appeared at that point. "Andre" she barked, causing him to jump a bit and quickly minimise the screen he was looking at. "I need to check some numbers with you, can you come now?"

"I, uh…" he said, while looking around, obviously trying to locate his phone.

"Now Andre! Peter has a conference call with Sydney in half an hour and we need to get these sorted so he doesn't end up looking like a dick."

Andre made one last sweeping glance of his desk, and gave up, following Sophie-Anne in the direction of the meeting rooms. On their way out both of them glared at me, although for entirely different reasons. Fuck. At least it would be over soon.

I reached down and picked up Andre's phone. Luckily it wasn't a particularly sophisticated set-up and I could find the photos without too much difficulty. I started to scroll through them. There seemed to be a few of the girlfriend painting what I assumed was their new house. I don't think she ever smiled.

Then I found some of the drinks we'd all been at. More specifically, Sookie and I at the drinks. Fuck. Had he shown those to Sophie-Anne to let her know that he knew she was lying? It was pretty obvious from the way Sookie was leaning into me in the photos that there was something there. I got rid of those ones. And the ones which didn't so much show Sookie and me, as just Sookie's boobs. Fucker.

Eventually I got to the ones Sophie-Anne wanted gone. I didn't spend a lot of time looking at those, as there were just some things you didn't want to see. I deleted them pretty quickly, and then shoved the phone under some of the paper on Andre's desk, hoping he'd think he just misplaced it. Then I decided I was going to try to find High St.

SPOV

I wasn't entirely certain who had won the previous night's game of Scrabble, but I was glad that I'd heard the oven timer go off when the cake was supposed to be cooked. Although it took Eric a moment to figure out why I was trying to shove him off my chest, and it's really not easy to move him if he decides he's not going. It's worse than when Bob digs his claws in.

But having completed my baking projects for the week, Friday was proving to be a bit boring. And I had two other people to entertain. Although Felicia can usually be entertained by watching the dryer going round, Amelia had more sophisticated tastes these days.

"Mum, where are we going today?" she asked.

"Nowhere, we're staying home."

"But home's borin'!" It was hard to argue with her.

"Do you want to stick pasta shapes to paper again?" I asked her.

"No."

"Get the playdough out?"

"No."

"Well, what do you want to do?"

She sighed. "Something fun."

"What do you think is fun?"

She thought for a bit. "Driving in Eric's car" she said eventually. Well that was out of the question.

"Well we can't do that. Anything else?"

"Ummm, can we get some flowers?"

I thought for a bit. I guessed we could. "OK, yeah let's go to the garden centre and buy some stuff to plant." I was not a gardener. My mother had been really good at it, and when I was little going to the garden centre was like a torture. Literally, sometimes if Jason thought he could get away with administering Chinese burns behind the displays of ornamental fruit trees. But maybe Amelia would like gardening more.

So an hour later we had a large selection of 99 cent potted colour. Amelia had refuted the idea that we should stick to one particular type of flower, or a colour theme, or anything other than the random jumble of plants we'd ended up with. Felicia had sat in the trolley and made an attempt to eat some of the potting mix out of one of the plants. It was probably fairly nutritious.

I picked a neglected bit of the back garden and lugged all the plants over to it. Amelia skipped alongside; happy she was now getting her own garden. I wondered how long the enthusiasm would last.

Not that long. Unfortunately I had to weed and clear away the dead and neglected plants first and that was very boring for Amelia. She wandered off to find Bob. Felicia watched from the picnic rug until we broke for lunch and she went for a nap.

After lunch we could get to the bit Amelia really wanted to do which was plant the flowers. But I think that even that wasn't quite as exciting as she'd expected it to be. We put about three of the plants in and then she left me to it for a bit, coming back in time to criticise the way I'd positioned the rest of them. So we did the last few together and then I let Amelia enthusiastically water them in, which meant mostly my feet and all of Amelia got wet. I then put some slug pellets down, luckily I'd bought the animal-friendly ones because the rattle as they came out of the box piqued Bob's interest and I'm sure he thought they were a new kind of cat biscuit, and we were done. If a little wet. And muddy.

"Do you want me to put some water in the paddling pool?" I asked Amelia.

"Yep"

So I had to dig the paddling pool out of the back of the shed and clean it down, because there were 'yucky spiders' in it, before I could position it in the shade of the house. Then I had to lug several buckets of warm water out to make sure the temperature was OK. It wasn't quite warm enough yet to just use water straight from the hose. Amelia bounced around impatiently. I was just getting hot and tired, but there was no way I could fit in that pool.

When I had it filled I went back inside to get Amelia's tea-set, some towels, and the now-awake Felicia and got back out to find Amelia had stripped off all her clothes in readiness for getting in. I tipped in the tea-set and lifted her in, where she set about pretending to make cakes.

I then stripped Felicia off and put her in, much to Amelia's annoyance. "Why's Felicia in the pool?"

"Well, she's hot too."

"But it's my pool!"

"Well you have to share it with Felicia. That's only nice."

"I don't want to!"

"But it's the nice thing to do."

Amelia thought for a minute. "Is that why you share with Eric? Like, let him use your bed and stuff? Because you're being nice?"

"Yes" I said. "It's nice to share with others. It's what we do. Now let Felicia have the purple cup she's trying to reach please, she just wants one thing to play with." Amelia reluctantly passed a cup, the unloved green one, to Felicia. She was rewarded with a giggle and a squeal.

Gee, I thought, Eric can even be useful when he's not here. Who knew I could use him to teach Amelia about sharing? Just then I heard Halleigh's voice behind me saying "Sookie?" Crap. I hope she didn't hear too much about the bed-sharing.

I turned around and she looked a bit embarrassed. Oh, she probably had heard Amelia. It was hard not to. "Hi Halleigh!" I said.

"Oh, hi. Hey, um, if it's not too much trouble, can Riley join in?" She gestured to where Riley was staring forlornly through the fence at the paddling pool. Maybe, I thought, she's just embarrassed about asking and didn't hear anything? I could hope.

"No, that's fine. If you want to watch for a bit, I'll get some more water to fill up the other half of the clam shell."

"Cool, thanks".

I lifted Riley over the fence and Halleigh motioned that she'd go down the side of the house and around. Yeah, her days of climbing fences were over. I felt sorry for her. Being pregnant in summer sucked, I'd done it twice and could really sympathise.

As I walked into the house to get another bucket of warm water I could hear Amelia talking to Halleigh. "I'm going to share with Riley" she said "because it's nice. Mummy says it's nice to be nice, like when she's nice to Eric and lets him share the shower with her…"

I wondered if I just stayed inside whether anyone would come looking for me.

EPOV

My lunchtime shopping trip had yielded some ideas, but I needed to do my research. Possibly even track down Tara. Still, I could always come back into the city I figured.

When I got back to my desk, Andre wasn't there, but it looked as though he'd taken the phone, so he must have been back at some stage. Hopefully he wasn't off somewhere discovering he was missing a few photos.

So I set about finishing the last things I had to do to revise the model the way Peter wanted it, because I really fucking did not want to have to come back here on Monday. Just a few more hours and I was out.

Sophie-Anne arrived before Andre did. "Did you do it?" she asked.

"Yeah, all done." She looked pleased with that.

"Thank you Eric, I knew you'd come through for me."

"Yeah…so do you want me to hand over what I've done?"

"Oh…sure. I'll round up Peter and we'll see you in one of the meeting rooms, the one by reception, at, say, 5 o'clock? You're staying for tonight, aren't you? So you don't have to rush of anywhere?"

"Yeah, I am."

"Excellent. I'll see you at 5 o'clock then." With that she walked off.

It was just before 5 when Andre appeared, looking murderous. Fucking great, I thought, here we go.

"Fuck you, Eric" he hissed, sitting down. "I might have known you'd do anything for her. You really are a fuckwit."

"Whatever Andre. I don't have time for this" I said, packing my stuff back into my bag.

"Arsehole."

"Bye Andre". With that I left to go and meet with Sophie-Anne and Peter.

At least with the two of them in the room I was pretty safe from Sophie-Anne, who did keep smiling at me rather disconcertingly. But at least my work was done and nobody wanted anything else from me in that regard. Peter checked that I was coming along to the function that night, and I said I was, although I really didn't fucking want to. But I didn't need them telling Victor I hadn't been co-operative, I might need a reference at some stage.

"You're coming tonight, aren't you Soph?" Peter said, turning to Sophie-Anne, who stopped smiling at me long enough to smile at him.

"Of course, but only after I've been out with the Area Managers from the Retail Bank who have all been in Auckland this week."

"Oh, that's right, how did the conference go?" The conversation turned to stuff I had no fucking clue about and I zoned out and watched the boats out the window. There seemed to be some sort of yachting contingent that went out every Friday night, so the harbour was filled with small white sails.

Eventually Peter stood up to leave and said his goodbyes. I hustled to follow him before Sophie-Anne could say anything else. As I reached the door though, she put a hand on my arm. "See you later on then, Eric" she said. I nodded and left as fast as I could.

The function went as well as could be expected. I hadn't been up to the boardroom on the 29th floor before and the view across the harbour was spectacular. The chief economist was pleasant enough to talk to, but delivered a speech that was as boring as fuck. Every fucking question put to him was basically just 'what will the interest rates do?' phrased about four hundred different ways.

After the official bit I got to mingle and finally have something to eat. The food was nice, but it was only finger food. Several of the customers came to talk to me and seemed to be impressed I was American, for some unknown reason. I don't remember it fucking impressing Sookie in quite the same way. Maybe she was an anomaly?

Peter introduced me to a few other clients he wanted me to meet, and they asked a few questions. A few people asked if they could maybe contact me for some consulting work in the New Year, and asked for contact details. Given I was technically unemployed I didn't exactly have cards to hand out but I scribbled my phone number down for them. I guess I might need something to do.

Eventually the numbers were thinning and I thought I could probably make a break for it. Seeing Sophie-Anne arrive really made my decision so I said goodbye to Peter, and walked out the door, intending to take a lift back down to collect my stuff.

But before I got too far I saw Andre. Fuck. I really just wanted to go home to Sookie.

"Eric, can I have a word?" he said, gesturing into an empty, and dark, meeting room.

"No, I'm going. Goodbye." I tried to keep walking but he stood in front of me, blocking my path. It was tempting to push him out of the way, it was actually really fucking tempting to punch him, given some of the photos he'd had of Sookie, but I didn't want to do anything I'd regret. Sookie's tirade about deportation loomed over me.

"What do you want Andre?" I asked.

"In here" he said, and stepped into the meeting room. I followed.

"So spit it out so I can get on with my life" I said, in no mood for any more of this shit.

"Which life Eric? The one where you play happy families with Sookie, or the one where you're fucking Sophie-Anne?"

I wasn't sure which part of that statement I fucking objected to the most. "I don't know what you're talking about Andre" I said, hoping like fuck he'd just shut up.

"Yes, you do. I saw you. In the foodcourt. With Sookie and her kids. Pretending that you're all one big happy family."

I'd had enough of this shit. "Fuck you Andre! Don't you dare bring Sookie into this. You know nothing, _nothing_ about her and I. You are a fucking slimy little shit who couldn't get someone as wonderful as that if you paid her. Don't forget I've seen the photos you had on your camera." Andre paled a bit at that. "You're nothing but a fucking sex pest. I do not want to hear you say Sookie's name ever again, you hear me? I'm marrying her and you and Sophie-Anne can do whatever the fuck you want to each other, or not, after today, but it has nothing to do with what I have with Sookie!"

Andre was quite pale now. At some point during that I'd stepped closer to him and he glanced towards the door, obviously worried about what I'd do next. Fuck, I thought, I hope the people in the boardroom didn't hear that.

"But…but…" Andre stammered. "But it's all just for show. Sophie-Anne said that you were shacking up with Sookie to get residency…"

"Andre, haven't you figured out by now that Sophie-Anne is a fucking nutjob? How the hell did you get involved with her in the first place? Haven't you got a girlfriend?"

Andre shrugged. "Thalia isn't that…warm…"

"And that bitch Sophie-Anne is?"

Andre just shrugged again. I was starting to think I could probably leave when the bitch herself appeared. "Not fighting over me, I hope?" she said, in a voice which said she very much hoped that was what was happening.

I snorted. "Not hardly. Andre here was just explaining to me all the lies you've been spreading."

"What lies, Eric? I've been perfectly honest with Andre. I no longer appreciate his attentions because I've moved on. I'm entitled to that."

"Yes" I said "but not to fucking tell him you've moved on with me!"

Sophie-Anne didn't even look ashamed at being caught out. Probably because she wasn't backing down from her lie. "He had to know sometime" she said.

"I don't believe you! You can't even fucking admit it when you've been caught out in a lie."

"Oh Eric" she said, stepping closer and attempting to grab my arm, which I rapidly pulled back. "Don't keep pretending for Andre's sake. He might as well know."

Andre had been silent all this time, just watching us as this exchange took place. He'd been getting paler and paler, but all of sudden he turned a weird fucking purple colour and just exploded. "You bitch!" he practically screamed at Sophie-Anne, causing her to flinch and turn her attention away from me. "You've done nothing back fucking lie to me! It was never his baby, was it?"

"Andre!" Sophie-Anne exclaimed, "I never meant to hurt you this way…"

I realised I had a clear path to the door and neither of them were watching me. I took that as my cue to make an escape, figuring it might be a few minutes before they noticed. Fuck. They were seriously fucked up. Good luck to them. I just couldn't wait to get home and pretend all of this had never fucking happened. I was probably going to need a shower just to feel clean again. Maybe Sookie could be persuaded to join me.

**Thanks for reading!**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N Phew! Finally got this finished, yesterday I got side-tracked by having too many kids with snotty noses who couldn't be left in a room alone together. Yeah, I know. The glamour!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

SPOV

When I heard Eric arrive home it was about 10pm and I was sitting in bed reading, with Bob curled up next to me, looking particularly pleased that I'd obviously got rid of that huge interloper who insisted on taking up most of the bed. I swear that when Eric walked in the bedroom door, shedding his shoes and tie as he did so, Bob actually frowned at me.

"How did it go?" I asked, putting my book down.

Eric flopped on the bed, causing Bob to bounce slightly then look pointedly at me again as if to say 'why the hell do we let _him_ stay?'

"It was terrible and really…sordid" Eric said, running a hand over his face.

"What, the function was?"

"No, that was OK, if a little boring. It was Sophie-Anne and Andre that ruined the night by dragging me into their little shit-storm of complete fucked-upness. If I never see either of them again, it will be too soon."

Eric just lay there and I wasn't sure what to say, having discarded 'I told you so' and pressing him for more gory details. In the end I went with just rubbing his arm. Bob took my movement in Eric's direction as a kind of betrayal and went and sat at the end of the bed and washed his tail.

After a bit Eric sighed and said "I'm going to take a shower" and went off to the bathroom, after a moment's hesitation where he looked like he wanted to say something else. Bob took the bed's movement as a step too far and jumped off, leaving the bedroom in search of something else to do. I figured there was no point sitting in bed alone and went to talk to Eric in the bathroom.

"So it was really bad?" I asked, over the noise of the shower.

"Really bad" Eric said lifting his head from under the spray. He turned and looked at me. "Are you getting in?" he asked.

I reached for a hairband and twisted my hair on top of my head. "Yeah, hang on" I said, taking off my pyjamas. "But I'm not getting my hair wet; otherwise I'll have to spend ages drying it or face weird hair in the morning."

Eric kissed me as I stepped in. "You and your shower rules" he said.

"What rules?" I asked. Eric just raised his eyebrows. "They're not rules; they're just…ummm, conditions? I don't know. You make me sound really bossy, like I'm Amelia or something."

Eric started laughing again so I smacked him on the backside. "Shut up you!" I said. He grabbed me in a hug and buried his face in my neck and we just stood there like that for a while. I realised that my hair was actually getting wet, with the spray as it bounced off Eric, but I'd given up at that point.

When he stepped back and started rubbing shower gel over my boobs I asked if he wanted to talk about it. He shrugged. "It was just…bizarre, and awful and so completely fucked-up" he said.

"How?"

"Ugh, I don't even really want to go over it again. But let's just say Sophie-Anne is the biggest bitch ever and had been lying to everyone for fuck knows how long." He was silent for a moment, just watching his own hands, then said "And there may have been a baby" so quietly I almost didn't hear.

"Oh...oh, that's pretty awful" although the thought of them breeding wasn't exactly pleasant. Eric was still looking down and frowning. "Hey" I said. "That won't happen to us. We're not them. We're better than that."

He looked up at me. "Yeah" he said "we are." We kissed again.

"Turn around" he said and I did. "Oh, were you outside today? You've got some more sunburnt spots."

I twisted around to try to see. "Bugger" I said "You would think by now I'd be OK putting on my own sunblock."

Eric placed some very tender kisses along the sunburnt blotches on my shoulders, which made them feel a lot better. Then he just pulled me back against his chest, at which point his stomach rumbled loudly making us both laugh.

"Come on" I said, "there's leftover macaroni cheese."

We got out and dried off, I put my pyjamas back on and tried to give my hair a quick dry. Eric went off to the kitchen to help himself to some dinner, but only after I made him put his boxers back on, instead of just wearing a towel. To be honest, if Halleigh or Andy were looking in the kitchen window at that point, Eric sporting either look was going to be pretty incriminating.

When I went back in the bedroom Eric was sitting on the bed watching TV and eating macaroni cheese. I sat down next to him as he was poking around with his fork. "What are the green bits…and the orange bits?" he asked. I rolled my eyes. "Vegetables. They're in there for Amelia's sake; it's just easier to shove everything in one dish."

"OK" he said, and went back to eating and watching some movie which seemed to have a lot of explosions. I snuggled into his side and surreptitiously watched his face. He seemed a lot more relaxed now, which was good.

He finished the macaroni cheese and put the bowl on the nightstand. I fought the urge to grab it and run to the kitchen to rinse it. Because cheese sauce sticks like anything. But I was getting better at fighting my urges, well some urges anyway.

Eric put his arm around me. "Well, the evening is turning out better now" he said, kissing my head and turning off the TV.

"Was it the shower or the food?" I asked.

"You" Eric said simply.

Oh. I felt such a huge surge of emotion that I thought I might burst into tears, which seemed a really dumb thing to do. Because I wasn't sad, not at all. I was happy and content and a whole bunch of other things that I couldn't even really decipher in that moment.

I didn't speak for a bit, trying to get past the tears thing. "Oh…oh, that's so…"shit, I thought, what is it? "...lovely" I finished, but I wasn't really happy with that. Eric didn't look upset though. I tried to think of something else to say. "I'm happy you're my boyfriend" I finally settled on.

Eric looked thoughtful at that though. Something flickered across his face. "Um, sorry" I said. "I just thought that maybe…" I pulled back from him a bit, but he just moved me back again.

"No, it's fine" he said. "It's good that I'm…something. It just makes me sound really fucking young!"

I wanted to tell him that he was really young, and anyway, I didn't think there's an age limit on boyfriends. Well, I hoped there wasn't. But I tried another tack. "So, what do you want us to be?" I asked.

That didn't elicit any real response, just a sideways glance from Eric, before he said "No, boyfriend is fine. Really."

"Well, how about partner then? Lots of people use that? Lots of, you know, de facto couples especially, like 'this is my partner, Eric'. Does that sound better?"

"Um…well, it sounds a bit like we're…gay…"

I snorted. "I don't think anyone is going to mistake you for a lesbian Eric." He chuckled. "But, look, we don't have to decide tonight. I'll be whatever you want."

"Really?" he asked.

"Well, within reason. I'm not dressing up like Tinkerbell or anything for you."

He pretended to look really sad, "well there goes a Christmas present idea!" he said.

"Ha ha. Seriously though, I'm fine with whatever."

"That's good" he said, and looked thoughtful again.

"What?" I asked.

Eric frowned. "But you're mine, aren't you? Whatever we are, you're mine? And I'm yours?"

"Oh, of course I am." It seemed an odd way to phrase it, but I sort of got what he meant. He wanted some kind of, assurance I guess, that I wasn't going to stomp all over him like Sophie-Anne stomped all over Andre. And I wouldn't.

"Good" he said. "Very, very good." Then he kissed me, deeply, and pulled me over so I was straddling his lap. "Want to prove it?" he asked, lifting my pyjama top over my head.

"What did you have in mind?" I asked.

"Maybe I should just show you" he murmured, kissing my breast. It was a demonstration that I very much enjoyed.

EPOV

The total clusterfuck that was my evening caught in the middle of Sophie-Anne and Andre's meltdown, was redeemed completely by coming home to Sookie. Seeing what Sophie-Anne was prepared to do to Andre made me more grateful than ever that I'd found her. Fuck, I thought, I didn't really deserve her. Well, maybe I could make it so I did deserve her. I was sure I could do that.

We had a completely weird conversation about whether I was her boyfriend, or partner or whatever the fuck she wanted to term it. She said she'd be what I wanted. I wanted her to be my wife. That would be a…statement to the world, or some shit like that. But I couldn't exactly say that to her now, I didn't want to scare her into thinking I was a fucking needy weirdo. And if I was going to do…that, to actually ask her, then I'd have to do it right. So maybe I'd have to put up with some fucking awful terms in the meantime.

Saturday morning Amelia was up bright and early and woke me up by leaning over me and going "Eric!" really loudly. I stopped myself yelling fuck just in time and only "Fu…" came out, thank God.

"Wake up" she said grumpily. "You have to come out and see my garden."

"Your…what?"

"Garden. I planted it yesterday. Mummy helped. Come on!" With that she skipped out of the room.

I hauled myself out and followed, heading to the kitchen where I said good morning to Sookie and Felicia, who squealed at me, which possibly wasn't desirable when she had a mouthful of cereal at the time. Amelia was over by the doors to the deck practically jumping on the spot. "Come on Eric!" she yelled.

"Yeah, yeah. You're like your mother sometimes, Amelia."

"I heard that!" Sookie yelled from the kitchen, and I turned and grinned at her before heading out.

The grass was wet with dew but it wasn't too cold at least. Amelia skipped ahead across the grass. Down by the back fence there was a cluster of small flowering plants of every colour you could possibly imagine. "See, Eric" Amelia shouted "It's my garden!"

"Oh, well it's lovely." I wasn't sure if I was required to say anything else, but it seemed sufficient. Amelia yelled "Bob!" and took off after the cat, and I trudged back inside to find some coffee.

After breakfast Amelia started pestering me for a ride in my car.

"There aren't any car seats in there, Amelia" Sookie said.

"Well, that's no fun" said Amelia and she stalked off. Sookie laughed.

"Maybe I should get some?" I asked.

"Oh, I don't know…maybe you could just rent some or something? That might be a bit cheaper?"

"I don't know, wouldn't rented ones be all disgusting and stuff?" I asked. Sookie burst out laughing. "What?"

"Oh, Eric. Have you even looked at the car seats in my car? They get pretty disgusting really quickly whether you own them or not."

"Well, the rent would surely add up over time so maybe buying would be better..?"

Sookie shrugged. "It's up to you really."

"Yeah, well I think I will then. Today. OK, point me in the direction of the…car seat shop or whatever it is I need."

So an hour later I found myself in somewhere called The Baby Factory which was the fucking scariest place I'd ever been. We'd taken both cars to get there so that Sookie could help me because I had no fucking clue what I was doing, and it soon became obvious she was really good at asking the right questions, and actually knowing what the fuck we were buying.

I let her talk to the saleswoman and glanced around. Fuck, there's a lot of crap you need when you have a baby. On a Saturday morning this place was really busy. There were kids everywhere. Luckily they had a playpen set up in the middle of the store and we'd stuck Felicia in there along with Amelia to keep an eye on her, although Amelia seemed to be trying to engage most of the other parents in conversation in lieu of playing with her sister.

The saleswoman seemed to know what she was talking about and took several models of seat out to my car to try them, before I finally made my pick, at which point she helped me get the new ones fitted. It seemed a total fucking shame not to tip her, but Sookie was adamant that it wasn't allowed.

When we were done Amelia insisted on driving home with me, so we strapped her in and I set off, with the little voice in the back narrating all the way and telling me that it was much quieter without Felicia, because she's the noisy one.

SPOV

Amelia's morning was made by the addition of car seats to Eric's car. It seemed wrong somehow for him to have to fork out that amount of money for something for my kids, but he really wanted to do it. And to be honest it gave me a bit of security, having someone else who could pick them up or drop them off in an emergency without the annoying change-over of car seats beforehand.

When Felicia and I arrived home, after a stop to buy fresh bread for lunch, Amelia announced how much fun she'd had in Eric's car. "It's so high up, Mummy. I can see everything. And I have a blue carseat, not a grey one. Blue's nice."

Eric looked pleased with himself that the set-up had met with her approval. It was so sweet watching the pair of them together.

After lunch, while Felicia was sleeping, Eric made us coffee. "Thank you for the car seats" I said to him.

"Oh, it's OK. It makes sense really."

"It does, but I think a lot of guys wouldn't have bothered."

Eric didn't say anything, but he smiled down at me.

"So" I said "Is it time for the moment of truth? Shall we try the Christmas cake?"

"Yeah, let's" said Eric, brightening at the prospect of cake.

I brought the tin over the table and Eric carried our coffee cups. It looked OK, but I couldn't be sure until we tried it, so I cut two slices and served them. I looked at Eric and he looked at me, and then we both took a bite. It wasn't right, it was OK, but it wasn't right. It was chewy or hard or tasteless or something.

I put my slice down on the plate and sighed. "What?" asked Eric, and then he saw my face. "It's OK" he said, "It's supposed to be chewy anyway, so it's fine."

And then I burst into tears.

Eric looked panicked. "It's not really chewy" he said, "It's really nice. Don't cry, it's only cake."

I cried harder. "It's not the cake" I said. "It's just, I want my mum. Or my gran. Or anyone who can actually make this cake taste like it should. But they're all gone. And I can't make it right, and I don't know why. And there's no one left who can tell me why. And I've stuffed up my heritage, or something. Why am I the only one left?"

"Oh, Sookie". Eric held out his arms to me and I went and sat in his lap and put my head on his shoulder, while he held me. "Ssh, it's OK. It doesn't matter about the cake."

"It's not the cake that's the problem; it's that I can't, I don't know, pass on the knowledge to Amelia and Felicia. It's lost. Gone forever."

"But there are lots of other things you can pass on to them."

"Like what?"

"Um, like bacon and egg pie"

"That recipe's in the Edmonds cookbook."

"Or, Christmas mince pies."

"I bought the pastry and the fruit mince filling."

Eric sighed. "Well how about macaroni cheese with vegetables? That's got to be a Sookie creation?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"And what about all the other stuff, then? Not cooking. Like, you can teach them how to be kind, and generous and loving and give people second chances when they probably don't fucking deserve them. You can show them all of that."

"Oh, well. That makes me sound wonderful. I'm not sure I am, but thank you." I kissed him. Wow, I thought, did he really think I was that great?

We were silent for a bit and then Eric said "I think I remember my mom making brownies. That was her special recipe. But I don't remember being allowed to eat them. Maybe I got to lick the bowl; I remember that being a big deal. But they were always for some fucking bake sale or whatever."

Oh, I thought. Eric is sharing. This is a big deal. I just stayed quiet, and waited to see what happened next.

"But she wasn't a good mom, or mum, like you. She was fucked up. And she left me with my dad, who was probably even more fucked up. So I don't think being able to bake is everything." He held me tighter and I got the feeling there was more going on in his head than he was saying, but I wasn't going to push him.

"Thank you for putting up with my minor breakdown" I said.

"You're very welcome. And now I'm going to eat my cake." Eric reached around me and took another bite.

"You don't have to you know."

"S'OK. I want to" he said with his mouth full.

Eric mowed the lawns again in the afternoon, and even managed to get the mower started by himself. It meant I had to keep the kids inside for a bit, which annoyed Amelia. She was worried that Eric would mow over her flowers, no matter how many times I told her they were safe where they were in the corner of the garden.

So she and I played Dora snap, with lots of significant pauses while I waited for her to catch on and yell snap herself, and Felicia circled around us and tried to find interesting things to touch. Eric was going to have to start taking better care of that phone.

I kept an eye on Eric out the window and he seemed to be doing OK. I noticed that Andy was next door doing the same thing, and he was watching Eric as well. I wonder what Halleigh had been reporting back to him and whether they were gossiping about the widow next door who'd moved her toyboy in. And made him help with the chores. I decided I didn't care. Well, I was going to pretend I didn't care anyway.

When Eric was finished and I could release Amelia back outside again she was thrilled and went down to check the flowers. I brought out her watering can so she could give them another water, which resulted in us all getting wet.

Just then Halleigh called "Sookie!" over the fence, and I left Amelia to go and talk to her.

"So, um, Andy and I are having some people, um, neighbours over for a Christmas drink tonight and wondered if you guys wanted to come over?"

I wondered why I was getting such a late invitation. But it would be rude to say no I thought while we were quite obviously just hanging around at home. "Yeah, that would be great" I said. "Just let me round up the family and get them cleaned up and we'll be over."

"Great, we'll um, see you guys soon." Her eyes flicked over my shoulder to something, and then she turned and lumbered back inside. Poor woman, I thought.

EPOV

I'd finished putting the mower away and was coming around the side of the house when I saw Sookie talking to the woman from next door, Riley's mom. I heard Sookie say something about 'rounding up her family' and it made me feel insanely happy that she didn't say 'Eric and the kids' or, even worse, 'Eric and my kids'. But she'd included me, her boyfriend, partner, whatever the fuck she thought I was, I was at least family.

I put my hands on Sookie's shoulders and she turned around. "We're invited for drinks at Halleigh and Andy's tonight, for Christmas" she said.

"Sounds good, I'll just have to take a shower. It's freakin' hot out here."

Sookie stood on tiptoe and kissed me. "Nice work with the language there, Eric" she said.

"Well, I'm trying."

And then we heard the shout as Amelia realised that Felicia had not only crawled off the picnic rug onto the grass, but had some of the new flowers in her chubby little hand and was doing her best to rip them out of the ground.

Sookie sighed and went over to scoop up Felicia. "It's OK Amelia, she didn't get any" she said.

Felicia just giggled. Amelia pouted and pointed at the perceived damage. Sookie crouched down to hug Amelia and let Felicia see the flowers from a safe distance. I just watched the three of them and thought fuck, that's my family. I'd never felt so fucking pleased about anything in my entire life.

**The Edmond's Cook Book is an institution in New Zealand. It's been published since 1907 by Edmonds who make a lot of ingredients for baking, particularly baking powder (their motto is 'Sure to Rise'). Just about everyone and their dog has one. My mum has three, because whenever she goes to replace her old tatty one, she discovers the newer edition doesn't have some essential recipe. So she just keeps them all. They have a bit of everything in them, but really can't be beaten for basic baking recipes. So if anyone needs a good recipe for bacon & egg pie, just let me know!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N Nothing exciting to report here!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

EPOV

When I came out of the shower there seemed to be a flurry of activity going on. Sookie was simultaneously trying to spoon food into Felicia and dress Amelia, so I offered to take over the feeding.

Felicia gave up after a while and refused to have any more. I sniffed what was in the bowl I was holding and then stuck my finger in to have a taste. It was fucking odd, whatever it was. "What's she eating?" I asked Sookie, who was busy peering into cupboards.

"Lamb's fry…you know, liver."

"Urgh." All of a sudden I needed some water, so I grabbed a glass and filled it from the tap. "Yuck, why are you feeding her that?"

"Because it's good for her. Lots of iron."

I looked at Felicia who smiled at me. Yeah, well. Someone had to stick up for her. "So, do you think maybe she wants dessert? Like…" I peered over Sookie into the pantry, "…um, maybe banana custard?"

"Oh, well if you think she's still hungry."

"Yeah, I think she is." So I grabbed the custard and dished that up. Felicia only had a few mouthfuls, but Sookie wasn't really paying attention so I just finished up what was in the bowl for her.

"Wow" said Sookie, as she saw me rinsing out the bowl, "did she eat all that as well?"

"Um, most of it. I had the last bit so it wouldn't go to waste."

Sookie just patted my arm. "Of course you did" she said. "Hey, can you do me a favour? And go to the shop on the corner and get some wine? I think I've found enough stuff to make a platter of nibbles but we need to take some wine as well."

I looked at what she was doing. "How much food are you taking?"

Sookie stopped chopping celery sticks. "Not much, but we can't go empty handed."

"Yeah, OK". I thought she was fucking going overboard, but she was working herself into a frenzy so I figured it was better to say nothing and just go and get the wine.

When I got back we were pretty much ready to go. I got to hold Felicia; Sookie took the fucking enormous platter, and tried to get Amelia to walk along with us.

"Why aren't we going over the fence?" Amelia asked.

"Because we're proper guests tonight" Sookie said. Amelia didn't look impressed.

"I can still go on the trampoline though, can't I?"

"If Riley invites you to, then yes you can."

"Can I just tell him I want to bounce?"

Sookie crouched down. "Sweetheart, remember its Riley's house, so you have to be nice to him and not be too bossy."

Amelia humphed, and we carried on along the pavement and up to the front door.

SPOV

As soon as we got inside the Bellefleur's I figured out why we'd been invited at the last minute. Everyone else here was part of a couple. No wonder they didn't want to invite the weird lady with the dead husband from next door. Eric made me socially acceptable again. I should be annoyed, but I guess that's just the way these things go sometimes.

Amelia announced she wanted to go on the trampoline as soon as we were in the door, so Halleigh kindly took her and Riley off to the garden. Andy came over and said hello and introduced himself to Eric, shaking hands. I wondered if that was the catalyst for the invitation, Andy seeing Eric mowing the lawn this afternoon. I guess lawnmowing implies a degree of permanence or something.

I went to put the food in the kitchen where Halleigh came in and thanked me profusely for bringing it.

"How are you feeling?" I asked her, as she poured me a glass of wine.

"Oh, well, you know" she said. "Fat, and hot and fed up."

"Yeah, it's fun alright. This time last year that was me!" Halleigh and I laughed, and she left to go and refresh some drinks.

"What was you?" Eric asked, appearing behind me.

"Oh, um, pregnant. I was pregnant this time last year."

Eric looked at me, frowned, and then looked back at Felicia who'd been trying to remove the sunglasses he'd tucked into the front of his shirt. "Really?" he asked.

"Yup. She was born in February."

"I feel like she should be…smaller or something."

"Well, a lot happens in the first year. She'll be walking soon."

"Oh. That sounds a bit fucking frightening."

"Yeah, she's not going to be my baby for much longer." I leaned over and kissed her cheek. "It makes me a bit sad really." I sighed, then shook myself out of it. "Do you want a beer?" I asked Eric, grabbing one out of the fridge. He nodded. "Let's go and grab a seat and we can put Felicia down for a bit."

EPOV

So now I had figured out where all the couples in the world went on a Saturday night. They did this, just stood around in living rooms and talked shit, while a whole bunch of kids ran wild and stomped potato chips into the carpet. It was, interesting. I sat with Sookie and Felicia for a while, but she got involved in a conversation with Halleigh about pregnancy that I really didn't want to fucking hear, so I went to get another beer.

On the way back I stopped by the food and got accosted by some woman with red hair.

"I'm Arlene, from across the road" she said.

"Oh, I'm Eric. From, um, next door" I said, pointing out the window.

"Oh, right. So that's your wife?" she said pointing to where Sookie was sitting with Felicia on her knee.

"Yeah" I said. It seemed far too fucking hard to go through the whole partner thing, which even I wasn't that clear on.

"Well, my husband, Rene, is around here somewhere…oh there he is." She pointed to some guy standing by Andy. "And I think my kids are outside with the rest of them."

"Right" I wasn't sure what else to say. Just then though Amelia appeared beside me "I'm hungry!" she announced.

"Oh, well, um, have this." I passed her something that looked like a piece of toast with hummus on it. She took one bite, pulled a face and handed it back to me. "I want something else." I grabbed a handful of the chips and gave her those. They were obviously better because she headed off again.

"Kids!" said Arlene. "They're all the same. Fussy little buggers. Coby's 7 and I still can't get him to eat vegetables!"

"Oh, you should try putting them in macaroni cheese. That's what Sookie does."

"Right, well I might do that. Well, it was nice to meet you Eric!"

"Yeah, you too." With that she left, leaving me clutching the half-eaten bit of toast Amelia had handed me. At a loss with what else to do with it, I ate it myself.

I chatted to a few other people, including Andy himself for a while. He seemed like an OK guy and had some interesting stories from his job. A few of the other guests asked where I lived and I just said next door, at which point they all clicked and realised that I was with Sookie. I guess some had known Bill because they asked how long I'd known her and stuff like that, but some had no fucking clue I was new here.

At one point I realised that Sookie was now talking to the Arlene woman and I could see her frowning in my direction, but I didn't realise why until we walking home. I was carrying Amelia, who after an evening of running around was tired out, and Sookie was carrying Felicia. "I can't believe you Eric Northman!" Sookie hissed over Felicia's head.

"What did I do?" I asked.

"You were telling everyone we're married!" she hissed back.

We'd reached the front door by this stage, so we paused so Sookie could unlock it. I put Amelia down inside and Sookie told her to head to the bathroom to brush her teeth.

"I didn't tell everyone" I said "I just didn't correct one person who fucking assumed it. There's a difference."

Sookie whipped around to look at me "No there's not. Don't try to justify it. I'm going to put the kids to bed."

I left her to it and went into the living room to watch some TV. After a while she appeared and started up again "It's not nice to suddenly find out we're married! I would have liked to know beforehand!"

"Yes, fine, Sookie! I get the fucking memo! No surprise marriages, they piss you off. I get it, you can stop fucking going on about it." Now there were no kids around we were a lot louder.

Sookie didn't say anything to that though, but just stomped off. I went back to what I was watching. Fuck, I thought, I wonder if I should just sleep out here if she's going to be in a fucking mood the whole night.

After a while Sookie reappeared in her pyjamas and sat down next to me. I eyed her warily, waiting for the accusations to start up again. Instead she said "Do you want coffee?"

I didn't say anything; I assumed there was something more to come. But all I got was her saying "Well?"

"Oh, um yeah?"

"Well you can make it then."

"OK" I still wasn't sure what was going on. "So, you're not pissed anymore?"

"Well, I'm still a bit annoyed, but I told you that I was, so I'm mostly over it now."

"Sooo, you're not going to shout at me any more?"

"I wasn't shouting at you in the first place! But no, no more tonight."

"Oh."

Sookie's eyes narrowed. "What does 'oh' mean?"

"Just…oh, I didn't think you'd be over it tonight. You were so fucking pissed before."

She shrugged. "That's how we fight in my family, we say our piece, and then we move on. Worked for mum and dad."

"I thought women all held fucking grudges" I said, then realised I was in danger of jeopardising the fragile truce that Sookie had called.

"Phft" she said. "That's a generalisation. I've known men that could hold terrible grudges. And sulk for days on end."

"Bill?" I asked.

"Yeah, Bill. At any point in time half of his family isn't talking to the other half. I can't stand that kind of shit. So I just get it over with. Anyway, you said you wanted me to tell you when I was mad with you."

"Yeah I did, I guess. Not sure I had quite that in mind."

"Well, if you don't want me to be annoyed with you, don't do dumb shit like let people think we're married. It's really quite simple Eric." I thought for a minute we were back to the place where Sookie was pissed with me, but she was smiling at me, and she put her hand on my shoulder. "So do I get my coffee now?"

"Jesus, what's the rule about nagging around here?"

"Ha ha. I'm allowed, but it's not nagging, it's gently prompting you to make the correct decision."

"You should have been a fucking lawyer" I said standing up.

Sookie giggled. "Hey do you want a mince pie?" she asked.

"Yeah, possibly several. We seem to have missed dinner somewhere."

"That's the problem with nibbles and drinks, they're not really filling. Luckily you had all that banana custard before we left."

"Um, it was just a bit."

Sookie snorted.

So we sat on the couch and watched some crappy movie while eating mince pies, then Sookie decided she was still hungry so we had cheese on toast as well. I couldn't believe the turnaround from earlier in the evening.

"So, you're really over it?" I asked, as we were going to bed.

"Yes, Eric. I really am. Honestly, you don't have to worry. It doesn't mean I like you any the less, or that I'm going to kick you out or anything." My face must have betrayed me because she peered at me closely. "You thought I was going to kick you out, didn't you?"

"No. Well, I didn't fucking know. I don't know how these things work."

"What, fights?"

"Yeah, I don't really…have them."

"OK, so what you just let women yell at you and you don't fight back?"

"No, I just don't stick around long enough."

"Oh." Sookie looked worried, fuck.

"But I wouldn't leave you" I said. "Not, just because you yelled at me anyway."

Sookie was quiet for a minute. "What about your parents? How did they fight?"

"They didn't. Just one day my mom wasn't fucking there."

"Jeez, I can't imagine doing that."

"No, well I can't imagine you doing that either. And then my dad's…girlfriends, well he fought with them; there were a lot of fucking nasty fights after that. It always ended with someone leaving." I laughed. "Me, if I could fucking get away from it."

"Oh, that's really shitty."

"Yeah, but it's a long time ago." It was a fucking long way away from anything I had with Sookie. Fuck, I was lucky I hadn't ended up like my dad.

Sookie lay down and stretched out. "It's nice to be in bed" she said. "It seems to have been a long day."

I lay down next to her "Yeah, but mostly it's been a good day."

"Yeah, mostly good. I think that's what you should hope for really. Mostly good."

"I don't know, I think it's possible to get better than that. How about almost completely good, with some excellent parts?"

Sookie turned to look at me. "And what would the excellent parts of today be?"

I wanted to tell her that one of them was finding out I was part of the family, but after the fucking marriage debacle I didn't want to risk ruining anything. "Well" I said, "maybe we could try for an excellent part of the day now?"

"What are you proposing?"

"I thought proposing wasn't allowed?"

"Now who's playing with language?"

"OK, then, how about we do this?" I kissed her neck, "Then this?", I kissed her collarbone, "Then this?" I kissed the top of one breast then the other.

"Yeah, that's definitely heading towards excellent."

"Well, let's get you out of these clothes", she sat up so I could pull her top off, then kicked her own pyjama shorts down, "then we can keep going." I kissed her between her breasts, then in a line down her stomach, before veering to the side to kiss her hip bone and down her thigh, repeating the process with the other hipbone and thigh.

I moved so I was between her legs, which she obligingly opened for me. I fucking loved that she was so less inhibited now than she had been. She was over her fucking stupid need to keep a sheet covering her at all times and I loved it when she was laid out for me like this, a real feast for the eyes.

"Fuck, you're beautiful Sookie" I said looking up at her face. She looked at me, sort of frowned and bit her lip, like she wanted to argue but was holding herself back. "Thank you" she said in the end, and smiled at me. I smiled back, before dipping my head to kiss her clit. She shuddered slightly. I used my tongue to lick her slit, and then I sucked her clit gently while Sookie moaned "Ohhh, Eric." Fuck, I'd never get tired of hearing Sookie say that.

I kept my mouth working, while placing one then two fingers inside of her. She was so warm and wet, and then she was tightening against my fingers and her hips were doing their best to buck me off as she came.

I moved back up the bed to lie beside her. "Yeah" she said "that was an excellent part of the day."

"Well it's not over yet" I said, and I got a condom out of the drawer, before taking off my boxers. Sookie had rolled onto her side and she reached down and stroked me a few times, which made my need to be inside her even more desperate. I rolled the condom on, lifted her leg and pushed in, with both of us still on our sides. We lay like that for a minute, before I began moving, just slightly.

"Still excellent?" I asked.

"Better than excellent."

I pushed Sookie onto her back and began to move in a more regular rhythm. Sookie clutched at my back as she came again and I stilled for a moment. "Don't stop" she whispered. I hooked her leg up with one arm and began moving again.

I felt her twitch and tense again as she had another small tremor, and then I was lost to my own orgasm, collapsing on top of Sookie.

"Yeah, that was fucking excellent" I said. "You're fucking excellent."

"So are you"

We looked at each other for a moment, and it felt like there was something unspoken in the air between us, something that had been building for a while. But I didn't have a fucking clue what I wanted to say to Sookie, or how I wanted to say it. I just hoped she somehow knew what I felt, even if I didn't. The way she was looking at me, it seemed like that was possible.

Later I held her tight to my chest as she drifted into sleep, and I just listened to her breathing. I was close to sleep myself when I was hit with a sudden realisation. Fuck, I thought, is this what love's like?

**My original thought for this sequel was that it might be about 8 chapters, but it seems to be growing. So I hope you guys aren't getting too bored now the angst is dialling down and they're a lot more together. Just tell me if you are!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N So most people assured me they weren't bored, so thank you all for your kind words! Rest assured, I would never just stop writing, I just wanted to check the story wasn't drifting. I think after this chapter though we'll be speeding things up in the lead up to Christmas anyway.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

EPOV

I slept better than I would have expected, given my realisation the night before. Well, really it was more of a question. A question which I had no way of fucking answering.

I was still awake before Sookie though, hearing Amelia stamping around in her room, talking to her toys. I couldn't figure out how we could take her out on a Saturday night and put her to bed late, and she'd still be up at the fucking crack of dawn on Sunday. At what point did kids start sleeping in?

I went to the bathroom and then stuck my head into Amelia's room. She'd obviously been dressing herself as several of her drawers were opened and it looked as though she'd been raking through them. "Hi Eric! Do you like my outfit?" she asked brightly. I wasn't sure whether pink, orange and green were meant to go together like that, but Sookie seemed to let her wear all sorts of weird shit.

"Yeah, it's great, Amelia. Do you want breakfast?"

"Yeah, I just have to dress Sophie-Anne…"

"OK, well, just come to the kitchen when you're ready."

I left before I got dragged into dressing a doll or seven, because they had fucking tiny clothes.

I left the room and started to head to the kitchen, when Bob ran past with something in his mouth. Fuck. I was torn between wanting to know what he had and wanting to pretend I hadn't seen it. In the end I followed him into the living room, in time to see Bob drop his small orange victim on the floor and pat it with his paw.

I went over and picked it up. Bob just looked at me and I suspected that he wished it was me he'd just dispatched. "Fuck Bob" I said "No more fucking goldfish, OK? And don't think me covering this up for you makes us friends. I don't want Sookie to get upset because you're murdering half the neighbourhood animals for her."

I went into the kitchen, wrapped the fish in a paper towel and deposited it in the rubbish bin. Bob followed me in the hope of getting breakfast. I was tempted to not feed him to teach him a lesson, but I'd only spend the rest of the morning fucking tripping over him, great fat fucking lump that he was. So in the end I refilled his biscuits. "You don't deserve this" I told him, but he just ignored me and started eating.

I was making coffee when Amelia arrived. She'd now added a large amount of plastic jewellery to her outfit. And a tiara. "What do you want for breakfast?" I asked her.

"Toast"

"What do you want?"

"My peanut butter and raspberry jam"

"So, which bread do you want? Lumps or no lumps?"

"Uh…with lumps." She didn't sound convinced.

"Are you sure?" I was pretty convinced I'd been told last time that the lumpy bread wasn't acceptable.

"Well, Mum says lumps are better…" she trailed off.

"I'm not your mum, so you can have what you want."

"Really?"

"Well, yeah." Fuck, I thought, please don't ask for ice cream.

"OK. Bread with no lumps."

I put the toast on and once again Amelia went to get her stool so she could watch me put the peanut butter and jam on. Well I thought that's what she wanted. Apparently she wanted to put it on herself. Was that allowed I thought?

"Mum lets me" Amelia insisted. Well, I thought, OK then. So I let her loose with the knife, although I did keep an eye on what she was doing. She struggled a bit with the peanut butter and I had to take over, but she was fine with the jam, although she did end up a bit sticky.

Once we both had toast Amelia asked if we could watch TV. "Yeah, OK" I said, so we went into the living room, which was thankfully now devoid of dead fish. "What do you want to watch?" I asked Amelia.

"Playhouse Disney." Well that turned out to be the worst fucking channel in the entire world. I was so glad I'd got Sky installed so we could have that. But it made Amelia happy.

Still, I was glad when I heard Felicia start crying and I had an excuse to leave the room. Sookie beat me to it though, and Felicia was out of her crib and on the change table when I got there. Sookie turned around as Felicia squealed out a greeting. "Morning" she said, and I kissed her.

"Yeah, hello to you too."

"You were up early this morning" Sookie said.

"Yeah, I heard Amelia get up. She was dressing herself."

"Oh God, is it bad?"

"It's bright."

"There's no point changing her now though as she'll only get upset."

I picked Felicia up and the three of us went into the kitchen. "Where's Amelia?" asked Sookie.

"Watching TV in the living room. I'm not sure what it is but it's fucking dreadful."

"Most of the kid's stuff is."

Sookie looked in the fridge. "Ugh, we're running low on milk. I'll have to go shopping later on."

I went to the pantry to find Felicia some breakfast. The banana porridge would probably be alright. She liked the banana custard after all.

I managed to get most of it into her before she gave up, and I finished the rest, which made Sookie laugh when she caught me eating it out of the bowl. "What?" I asked.

"You with the baby food. You don't have to eat it, you know."

"Yeah…it's OK. So long as it's not that liver shit again."

"Well, you probably don't need the iron. Hopefully you're not having any more growth spurts" Sookie said, looking me up and down.

Just then Amelia appeared, with jam smeared over most of her face. "I put the peanut butter and jam on" she said.

"Did you? Well done sweetheart" Sookie said, taking her plate off her and rinsing it, before finding a washcloth and wiping her face. "Did you find her plastic knives OK?" she asked me.

There were plastic knives? "No, she's fine with a real knife. They're not that sharp. I watched her."

"Well, as long as she's still got all her fingers and thumbs, then yeah, she's probably fine."

Sookie and I had to shower in shifts, which was no fucking fun at all. I tried to persuade Sookie that we could go in together, but she wasn't convinced that Amelia and Felicia could be trusted by themselves. She was probably right. While she was in the shower I caught Amelia jumping off her stool and landing dangerously close to where Felicia was trying to chew on…fuck, was that my phone again?

"Amelia!" I said reaching down to take the phone off Felicia, whose face immediately crumpled.

"What?" she said angrily.

I picked up Felicia who was still crying and now had two fat tears running down her cheeks. I looked around for something else to give her and ended up handing her a coaster to hold. "You can't jump that close to Felicia's head. You'll land on her and hurt her" I said.

"She can move."

"No she can't. Not that fast. And you're bigger than her, so you need to look after her."

Amelia stared me down. At least she wasn't crying as well, I thought. She started to get back up on her stool again.

"Amelia! I said no!" Fuck, would she not just listen to me?

"You're not in charge!" she said.

"Yes I am." I was in charge enough when she wanted bread without lumps and to use a knife, now all of a sudden she's going to challenge me?

"No you're not!" I guess 3 year olds didn't exactly have sophisticated debating skills, but even so, we were going round in circles here.

"Look, I'm the adult. I'm in charge. That's the way it works. You do as I say, or else."

"Or else what?"

I was tempted to say I'd tell Sookie, but I realised that then I'd just prove Amelia right. "Or else I won't let you go for a ride in my car again."

Amelia thought that over. "Really? No more rides?"

"Yeah, you do what you're told or else that's it, you're not going in my car."

Amelia's lip wobbled, and then the tears started. "But I like your car!" she sobbed. "I have a blue seat."

I put my free arm around her and pulled her close. Felicia just stared at her over the top of the coaster, which was now in her mouth. "Look" I said, "if you want to go in my car then all you have to do is be good and do what I tell you. So no more jumping near Felicia, OK?"

"OK" Amelia agreed, sniffing.

"Good, now let's find something else for you guys to do." The cork backing on the coaster now had tiny teeth marks. I'd just have to make sure Sookie didn't see that anytime soon.

SPOV

I heard what sounded like Amelia yelling when I was in the shower, but when I got out all seemed calm and Amelia had her doctor's kit out and was treating Eric for a spider in his tummy. Felicia was banging some blocks together.

"All OK?" I asked.

"Yeah" said Eric, around the plastic thermometer he currently had in his mouth. He was game. I usually only put it under my arm, there was no knowing where it had been.

"Eric's sick" said Amelia, "but it's OK, because I'm a doctor. Now take this medicine" she shoved a plastic spoon at him. I hoped my nursing skills were slightly better than hers.

"So will you guys be OK if I go to the supermarket?" I asked.

"Yeah, we'll be fine" Eric said.

I took that as my opportunity to escape for a bit. Although it turned into quite a long time. Ugh. People were starting to shop for Christmas, or barbecues or whatever. The supermarket was full of Christmas goodies and there were some good specials. I was feeding another adult now, so it made sense to stock up.

When I got back the house was open, but empty which was odd. It was like they'd just been taken by aliens or something. Except I could still hear Amelia. When I looked out the back she was on Riley's trampoline, along with Riley, and Eric and Felicia were sitting on Halleigh and Andy's deck, where Eric was talking to Andy. Huh. He had a friend.

I went and unpacked the shopping. Eric being next door gave me the perfect opportunity to stash some of the bulk buys I'd made.

I was just finishing up when the three of them arrived back in the house, looking for lunch. Eric put Felicia in the high chair and as he came towards me I grabbed him in a hug. "What was that for?" he asked.

"Nothing special" I said. "Just…for being you."

"Oh, well. I'm always me, so, you know, feel free to hug me anytime. Or anything else you might want to do to me."

"Yeah, yeah. But seriously, you've been pretty great with my little monsters today, so thanks for that."

"Oh, they're OK. When they're not shouting. Or crying. Or demanding things. The rest of the time they're fine."

After lunch we took a walk to the park where Amelia bossed Eric around and I tried to see if Felicia would crawl on the grass, but she wouldn't. Not without an incentive like her sister's garden. But I did get to walk a few steps holding my hand which was impressive. Well I thought so, and so did Eric. Amelia thought it wasn't fair that no one was paying attention to her and pretended to trip over and hurt her knee.

I'd bought steak again; well it's always on sale during barbecue season, so I let Eric loose with it. I only watched him a little bit when he was making his marinade, and I left the kitchen completely once he started saying "Come over here and stand next to me, I know you want to." He thinks I'm so nosy, but I really just want to make sure he's OK.

When we sat down to eat Amelia eyed her steak suspiciously. "It's OK" I said "Eric cooked it, so you're safe."

Amelia looked at him "Did you make it?" she asked.

"Yup. That's what I had on the barbecue." She speared a piece on her fork and dipped it in tomato sauce before putting it in her mouth. "So is Eric the cooker now?" she asked.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Well…you make dinner, because you're in charge. But Eric's in charge."

"Oh, well yeah, he's in charge too. So we both do it." I looked at Eric who was smiling.

"Well, he should do it more" Amelia said, tiny traitor that she was. "So maybe he could just be in charge always?"

"I think maybe we'll share being in charge, and the cooking". Yeah, I wasn't sure Eric wanted to do all the cooking. I wasn't sure I wanted Eric to be in charge of everything.

"So is Eric in charge of you too then?" asked Amelia, after some more thought.

"Well, no. We're in charge of you and Felicia."

"Yeah, together" added Eric.

"So, can I be in charge of Bob?"

"No, honey, I think that had better be me and Eric as well." Eric didn't exactly look thrilled at that, but I had to protect Bob from Amelia's attentions. Poor Bob.

Later on when we were in bed I asked Eric if he liked being in charge. "S'alright" he said. "When Amelia fucking listens to me that is." I laughed.

"Yeah, she is hard work. It's nice that she stands up for herself, but sometimes you just want her to sit down and do what she's told." I looked him in the eyes. "They really like you, you know. Even when you're in charge, you can see. Amelia adores you, and Felicia, well, she thinks you have cool stuff." I laughed, but Eric looked serious.

"So, that's OK?"

"What's OK?"

"That they see me like that…like, well…" he stopped and just looked at me.

"Like a parent you mean?"

"Yeah, I guess."

"It's fine. I mean, you're here so it's bound to happen. It would be weird if you were living here and not involved with them."

"What about if I wasn't?"

"Wasn't what?"

"Living here." My heart stopped for a minute. Shit, I thought, what's he trying to say to me? What the hell did Amelia do?

"Do, um, do you want to move out?" I asked.

"Oh fuck no, no nothing like that" Eric said quickly. "It's just that we said, you know, I would stay here until Christmas, and it's not that far away, so I didn't know…"

"Oh." Thank God, I thought, he doesn't want to go just yet. "Oh, well, let's just see how it goes. There's no rush. If you stay then maybe we could have Andy and Halleigh over on New Year's Eve or something for a barbecue, because we kind of owe them now. So, you know, I'm not kicking you out now. Amelia might revolt if I'm the only one left in charge."

"OK, well that sounds good. But I get to be in charge of the steak if we do have them over, right?"

"Yeah, 'course."

"Which means you don't interfere."

"As if I would! I don't know where you get that idea from Eric. Jeez, I'm not going to steal your secret recipe or anything!" He just laughed and kissed me.

"So, can I be in charge of you for a while?" he asked, his voice now husky.

"Oh, well what did you have in mind?"

"Oh, lot's of things. Want me to show you?"

"Yeah, alright. Go on then."

Eric helped me out of my pyjamas and then lay down on the bed next to me. He pulled me over so I was straddling him, and I was working hard on not wanting to grab a sheet to cover myself. He put his hand on my back side and started trying to push me up the bed, which confused me no end until I figured out what was going on.

"Um, Eric?" I said. "I'm not sure about this."

"What? You love this."

"Yeah, but this position is a bit…different." It felt dirtier or something, to be straddling his face like that. But I didn't want to say that, as Eric would think I'm an idiot, and a prude.

"Look I'm in charge right?" he asked, I nodded. "So let's just give it a go, and then if you really hate it, I'll stop OK?"

"OK."

Eric was right, I didn't hate it. I really, really didn't hate it. I had to brace my arms against the wall behind the bed because I was enjoying it so much I thought I might just collapse, and that was with Eric's hands on my hips also helping hold me up.

When I could breathe properly again I sat on his chest. "What's next?" I asked. Eric grinned and lifted me up so he could move. He shed his boxers and found a condom, which he put on. I stayed kneeling where I was, waiting for instructions. Eric being in charge wasn't that bad I decided.

He knelt behind me and then placed a hand on my back and pushed me forward so I was on all fours. This was different too. Eric in charge night was full of all sorts of different things. He pushed into me, holding onto my hips again. But they were good things, I decided. Different and good.

Eric was grunting slightly as he was thrusting into me, and he snaked a hand around to rub my clit, which just sent me straight into another orgasm. My arms were starting to give out so I rested my elbows on the bed. That felt great, and caused Eric to moan as he gripped my hips and sped up his movements. He said "Oh, Fuck Sookie", as he came, and then he kissed down my spine before pulling out and heading to the bathroom.

When he got back he didn't say anything, just raised his eyebrows at me.

"What?" I asked.

"So, it was OK then, I take it? Me being in charge?"

"Yeah, it was great. You can be in charge again."

"Well, maybe tomorrow you can be in charge. I think that sounds like a fucking good idea."

"Actually, so do I."

**Thanks for reading!**


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N So some of you will have heard there was a rather large earthquake in NZ last night, but it didn't affect Auckland. I was actually awake when it hit too (4.30am) due to a sick child, but it was centered in Christchurch which is halfway down the South Island, so there's a lot of land and sea between here and there. It doesn't look like a lot of fun down there for them all, poor things, but our infrastructure in NZ is reasonably good and able to cope with stuff like that and thankfully no one was actually killed. **

**I was going to make this chapter longer, but I was struggling to find the time to write, so I've decided to go with what I've got for now. So I hope you guys like it!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine. **

EPOV

I soon found out that Sookie and I had completely different ideas about what her being in charge fucking meant. "What does the box look like?" I yelled back down to her from where I was standing on the ladder, peering into the stifling hot space in the roof of the house.

"It's brown, it's a cardboard box."

"Can you give me something else to go on? There's tons of fucking cardboard boxes up here. How do I know which one has the Christmas decorations in it?"

"Well use the torch. It should say decorations on the box!"

"What torch?"

"Flashlight? You know, the thing you're holding."

"OK". I shone the flashlight on the accumulated junk in the space. "Um, did you know there's like three doors lying around up here?"

"Yup."

"And…some kind of a metal tub thing?"

'Yeah, I think it's an old bath. That was here when we bought the place. Hey, you can't see any rats can you?"

"Rats? Fuck. No, I can't see any rats."

"Good. Because a couple of times I don't think I've found whatever it was Bob brought me. Hopefully it was just skinks."

I finally spotted the box which had Decorations neatly written on it, in letters so tiny they were almost no fucking use. I started to drag it towards me, thought briefly about whether it was now housing a colony of rats who'd been inadvertently re-homed by fucking Bob and were probably likely to see me as a kind of co-conspirator, and then decided there was no way to back out of this now without having to send Sookie up here instead. So I was stuck with getting the box and bringing it back down the ladder. Luckily when I put it down at Sookie's feet it seemed to be rat-free.

"Did you see the box with the tree in it while you were up there?" she asked.

"Tree?"

She frowned slightly. "Christmas tree. So we can actually put the decorations on something."

"You're not going to get a real tree?"

"Well, it's not easy to look after a cut pine tree in summer…plus they shed."

"So does Bob and you keep him around."

"They smell funny."

"They smell _Christmassy_."

Sookie looked at me, then looked down and sighed loudly. "Fine. But we'll have to go and get it in your car, as you've got the roof rack."

"No problem. I'm sure Amelia will love the drive out to go and get one."

"Drive? It's not much of a drive. There's a Christmas tree place five minutes away on Balmoral Road. It's probably the last large piece of land left in Mt Eden."

"Oh yeah, I saw that on the way the St Luke's. So it's so close and you still don't get a real tree?"

She just shrugged then said, "OK, well I'll round everybody up then and we can go and pick one. We'll have to buy a stand as well I guess."

With that Sookie wandered off. I shut the trapdoor to the ceiling space and carried the ladder back out to the shed. I was getting a real Christmas tree, I hadn't had one since…fuck, since before my mom left I guess. Dad didn't exactly do Christmas, and I didn't bother for just me. But it wouldn't have been right without a real tree. I thought so anyway. Sookie was still grumbling about the amount of vacuuming that was going to be required even after we'd bought the thing and got it home, following a long period of indecision from Amelia and a burst of crying from Felicia who, according to Sookie, was having a 'clingy stage' and therefore didn't like the old guy who sold the trees trying to pinch her cheeks. I wasn't sure that had anything to do with being fucking clingy.

Once we had the tree positioned in the living room to Sookie's satisfaction, which required almost as much furniture re-arranging as hunting a fucking rat, and Sookie poking the vacuum around while muttering about pine needles, we could finally decorate it. Or Amelia could anyway. Needless to say by the time we were finished there were a lot of baubles clumped near the bottom of the tree. And we'd had to prise several of them out of Felicia's tiny fist, much to her annoyance.

"So" said Sookie, standing back to look at the tree. "Does it meet your approval?"

"Yep, but it does seem a bit weird to get so fucking hot and sweaty putting it up." Sookie lent over and sniffed me then giggled.

"Fine, I'm going to take a shower then I have to go out."

"Out where?" Sookie asked, frowning.

"Just out. Don't worry, it's nothing bad." Sookie looked a bit put out, but didn't say anything else to me as I headed to the bathroom.

While she was the supermarket the previous day I'd spent time looking through her pile of catalogues looking for Christmas present ideas. It had helped a bit, but I had also got hold of Sookie's friend Tara who'd been very useful. So I was heading back into the city.

SPOV

Eric talked me into getting a real Christmas tree and by about lunchtime I was already regretting it. I kept fretting about keeping the water topped up, not to mention the amount of needles it was shedding. Amelia thought it was wonderful though. When we'd gone to buy it she'd been a bit confused about where it was going and thought we were going to plant it. But she'd enjoyed decorating it, even if most of our ornaments were on the bottom third of the tree.

Then Eric had disappeared for a while being very mysterious. I hoped it had something to do with Christmas, but at the same time, I really hoped he wasn't going overboard. I had struggled to find anything for him, and I wasn't really sure he'd like what I had bought. Shit, he was really hard to buy for.

He'd arrived back though in good spirits and without any obvious purchases, but he must have seen me looking for them because he offered to let me frisk him if I wanted.

"Yeah, you wish!" I said and he laughed at me, and tried to frisk me instead, which just ended up with me being tickled. Felicia stared at us curiously as I shrieked and tried to get away, and Amelia soon turned up to find out what was happening without her and Eric had to tickle her as well so she wasn't left out.

After dinner Eric asked if I was still going to be in charge tonight. "Yep" I said. "So I thought we could go and sit in the living room."

"Oh…really?" Eric asked, looking a bit confused.

"Yeah, don't you want to snuggle up and watch the lights on the Christmas tree?"

"Well, I guess. But it's still light, so you don't exactly get the full effect."

"Yeah, but they're still pretty to look at."

"OK, well. You're in charge." He didn't seem overly enthusiastic though.

So we sat on the couch and I snuggled into his side and we watched the lights, which, yes, looked pretty but weren't spectacular given we had another two hours or so of daylight yet. Eric was doing that thing where he rubbed my lower back again and made me feel really warm and gooey. I just stroked his leg, occasionally letting my hand drift down to his inner thigh.

After a while Eric leaned over and started kissing me and I took the opportunity to swing my leg across and straddle him, which perked him right up, shall we say. He kissed the skin visible in the v-neck of the t-shirt I was wearing, then decided that wasn't enough skin, so he pulled the shirt over my head. I did the same to him, which caused a small tangle of our arms as Eric was now attempting to remove my bra.

I pushed his hands down and said "Hold your horses" while I managed to finally get his t-shirt off. Eric groaned, "We're not back to that again are we?"

"Back to what?"

"You slapping my hands away."

"No, no. You can have free rein with the bra now."

"Excellent" Eric said, and I lost my bra in the next instant. He palmed my breasts and then took one nipple in his mouth, while continuing to roll the other between his fingers. I put my hands in his hair and moved my hips a bit to get some friction.

After a few minutes Eric stopped and looked at me. "Bed" he said huskily.

"No" I replied.

Eric started placing wet kisses across my breasts again. "But Sookie" he said "I want to fuck you."

"I know. I want that too. But not in bed."

He stopped what he was doing and looked up at me as the penny dropped. I pulled out the condom I'd stashed in my pocket and showed it to him. "Are you sure?" he asked. "What if Amelia gets up?"

"Door's shut, and we should hear her coming. I think it's unlikely though. She was fast asleep when I last looked."

Eric grinned. "Couch it is then." He unzipped my shorts and I raised myself up a little so he could reach in with his hand. I lent down and whispered in his ear "Can you feel how wet I am?" Eric nodded, as he slipped a finger inside me. "Well, that's what you do to me. You make me so turned on that I can't even wait to get to the bedroom and I'm going to have to fuck you on the couch right now. So I need you naked. Quickly."

Eric didn't say anything else, just grinned as I undid his shorts and underwear, and then lifted off his lap to push them down, leaving him to kick them all the way off. I was just glad I'd got my little speech out without being overcome with embarrassment. I still wasn't really very good at this kind of stuff. Eric seemed to appreciate it though. And he made really appreciative groaning sounds when I stroked his penis while sucking on one of his nipples.

I opened up the condom and rolled it on, then stood up so I could lose my shorts and knickers, before slowly lowering myself onto him. It always felt so much better when he was inside me. I savoured the feeling for a moment or two before I started to move.

It wasn't long before I was overtaken by my orgasm and all I could do was cling to Eric for a bit. He kissed my collar-bone and pushed my now damp with sweat hair out of my eyes, before he murmured "Lie down".

"Hmmm?"

"Lie down on the couch."

I wondered if I should remind him I was in charge, but I decided that maybe abdication wasn't a bad thing about now and just went with it. Although I didn't like the feeling of climbing off him, it was lovely when he pushed back in after I was settled on my back.

Eric began to move in and out, at what seemed like a snail's pace. I reminded myself that patience is a virtue.

"I've wanted to do this since…the night I tickled you so you'd give me the remote" he said.

I really wanted to say something pithy, but all I got out was "Oh" because he chose that moment to increase his speed and I was hit with another orgasm which he didn't slow down for at all, but instead hooked my leg up and just kept going, so that I was going over the edge again as he finished.

After a few seconds of heavy breathing from the two of us, Eric looked at me and said "I think the couch worked out well. You have some pretty good ideas too."

Not sure what to say, I went for flippant. "Oh yeah" I said, in an exaggerated manner, "don't you know, I'm _awesome_!" I giggled, but Eric just looked at me and stroked the side of my face. "Yeah" he said, seriously. "You are."

Our eyes were locked for a few seconds and then he said "Don't you dare!"

"What?" I asked, struggling to rein in all my emotions.

"Cry. I can see your lip starting to wobble. It's the same thing Amelia does."

"Humph" I said. "I was not about to cry. You're imagining things." Yeah, I had felt the telltale heat behind my eyes start to build, but that just seemed lame and girly.

Eric just narrowed his eyes, suggesting he didn't really believe me. "OK, whatever you say" he said finally. "Shower?"

"Yeah, that sounds good. For some reason I'm all sweaty now."

"I think it's the Christmas tree lights" Eric said, pulling out and sitting up. "I never realised they gave off heat before."

"Yep, well they're going to kill that tree off if we're not careful. But you're right, the smell is not that bad."

"The smell is _Christmassy_." Eric said, leading the way to the bathroom.

"Whatever. Thank you for the tree anyway." By this time we'd reached the bathroom and Eric had turned on the shower.

"You're welcome" he said, and he kissed me before holding the shower door open so I could step in first.

Eric stepped in after me and promptly knocked half the bottles off the shelves. "Fuck" he said "So can I talk you into getting a bigger shower next?"

"Yeah, and how would that work exactly?"

Eric shrugged. "Amelia and Felicia could share a room?"

"Good luck selling that idea to them!"

He laughed and then busied himself making sure I was clean enough for bed.

**Thanks for reading!**


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N Hello! I'm back having survived Father's day. In a weird twist of life imitating, well, fan-fiction my baby learnt to crawl. What did I find her going for when I realised she could move? Yep, the Barbie shoes her sister had left on the floor. Obviously I could see that one coming!**

**Disclaimer: Characters still aren't mine, but you never know, if I could predict the crawling for Barbie shoes thing, maybe some of the other stuff will come true for me too!**

SPOV

I was kind of glad we'd had a shower before bed when I woke up with my face half in Eric's armpit. He still seemed keen on sleeping on me at night and I was starting to get used to it, although I did shuffle myself sideways and up so I had a bit more breathing space. Then I just lay there, enjoying being entangled with Eric, listening to his breathing and watching his face. It was lovely when it was just the two of us like this, and I was looking forward to having him (almost) to myself for the next three days; I was certainly happy he wasn't working anymore.

Eric's eyelids fluttered, then he made a kind of snorting noise and he murmured something as he pulled me closer to him. "Morning" I whispered to him. Eric said something else that was unintelligible and started stroking my back. It was very nice, until Amelia landed on the bed with a thump and announced it was up time.

"No it's not" said Eric, who still hadn't opened his eyes.

"Yes it is. See it's sunny outside." With that she jumped off the bed and opened the curtains covering the French doors. "And you can hear the birdies" she shouted.

Eric remained unconvinced, so I left him there and took Amelia off to get some breakfast. He emerged about 15 minutes later muttering about too much sunlight and needing coffee.

Amelia turned to look at him. "Eric" she said "You need to build a building", and then she went back to her toast. I burst out laughing and Eric just looked more confused than he had already. "I think" I said, once the giggles stopped, that she means you need to build a bridge, as in 'build a bridge and get over it'."

Amelia nodded. "That's what I said."

Eric looked from me to Amelia then back again, shaking his head. "You people are odd sometimes" he said, going back to his coffee. I just started laughing again while Amelia kept saying "Who's odd, Mummy? Who? Who is Eric talking about?"

"He means us, sweetheart. You and me."

"Why?"

"Just because."

"Well I'm not odd. I'm lovely."

"Yes you are" I agreed.

Just then we heard some cooing from down the hall. "Felicia's awake!" Amelia shouted, and went sprinting off to get in some quality time poking her sister through the bars of the cot with jam covered fingers, and I followed in order to rescue Felicia before she ended up too sticky.

When I arrived back in the kitchen with Felicia in my arms and Amelia trailing along behind trying to tickle her feet, Eric was looking a bit more alive, thanks, I guessed to the coffee. "Oh, look" I said, putting Felicia in the high chair. "There you are. Morning again."

"Yeah, yeah. Very funny. Good morning to you too" he said, kissing me. Then he turned to Felicia and held up a babyfood jar to her, "Banana porridge?" he asked, to which he got a squeal and some clapping, which seemed to be an affirmative. I left them to it and went to get Amelia ready for pre-school.

Eventually I managed to get everyone out the door, which is easier said than done really, and after dropping Amelia off I took Eric and Felicia off for a treat. Well I thought it was a treat. Eric thought that buying food sounded torturous, until we got to our destination which was the fancy 'food market', Nosh, on Dominion Road. Yeah, this place was more Eric than Pak N Save. It was all about 'nice' things. And it had a small café, which was currently doing a coffee happy hour.

Once Eric had his coffee cup in hand, he happily wandered about putting random things in the trolley. It appeared we were getting a lot of coffee. And some fancy bagels. And smoked salmon. I'd just come in to order a ham from the butchery. I wanted to comment on all the wandering that was going on, given that I was always accused of that, but decided I'd better not.

"So, why don't you just shop here? They have specials too." Eric asked me after a while.

"Um, because it doesn't do groceries. See, no nappies or washing powder or shampoo."

"Yeah, but it's nicer."

I patted his arm. "What?" he said "It is nicer."

Just then a woman stopped to admire Felicia, who just stared at her, then looked at me, then started to cry. "Oh, she's having a clingy stage" I said, lifting her out of the seat in the trolley.

The woman left us with the baby who was now snuffling into my shoulder. "So, is that really a thing? The clingy stage?" Eric asked.

"I think so. The books say it happens. Amelia has never had a clingy day in her life though so I think it depends on the child."

Eventually she calmed down enough to get through the checkout without any further drama, apart from the usual fight between Eric and me over who was paying. I like to think I would have won that one, but I was defeated by the amount of crap in my bag which made finding my wallet difficult. I really needed to clean that out.

EPOV

I didn't hold out a lot of hope when Sookie said we were buying food, but she'd managed to find some place a lot fucking nicer than Pak N Save. It had food that actually looked edible for a start. Sookie seemed to spend most of the time fucking laughing at me, as though watching me shop was the funniest thing she'd ever seen.

The rest of the morning passed pretty quickly and eventually it was Felicia's nap time.

"Come on" I said to Sookie, who was clearing up lunch in the kitchen, "let's go and have a nap as well. I seem to have missed some sleep this morning."

Sookie laughed. "You really think there'll be sleeping?"

I shrugged. "Resting?"

"Eric, I hate to break this to you, but it's not exactly restful when you're trying to remove my clothes so you can have your way with me."

"Yeah, but it's fun though" I said, moving her hair aside and pulling the top of her t-shirt down a bit so I could kiss along the top of her shoulders.

Sookie turned around and put her arms round my neck. "Alright" she said. "Let's go and get you your lie down." And then she started to walk to the bedroom.

"So if I'm lying down, what are you doing?" I asked.

"Pretending to be asleep" she said without looking back.

"I can work around that" I said, as I caught her and threw her onto the bed.

Tonight was apparently the night of the pre-school Christmas party, whatever the hell that was. When we got there it appeared it was like a normal day at pre-school, but with more people. Amelia was pleased to see us when we turned up, she ran over and announced that Santa was coming later on, and then she took off to hang out with her friends.

I followed Sookie into the playground and we found a spot to sit down and have the picnic dinner we'd brought with us. There were family groups all over the place doing the same thing, and a whole bunch of small kids like Amelia ignoring their parent's requests to sit down and eat something.

Sookie and I ate the sandwiches she'd made and attempted to get Felicia to feed herself some of the bread. She just stared wide-eyed at all the bigger kids. At least she wasn't crying I guess. After a while Sookie sent me off to see what Amelia was doing and I ended up getting cornered by one of Amelia's small compatriots. "Meela's daddy, lift me up" she commanded, pointing to the spot on the climbing frame where she wanted to be. I complied, but I did wonder whether all these kids were incapable of being polite.

As she grabbed onto the climbing frame and shuffled over to where Amelia already was, I heard a guy's voice behind me say "Maisie! Did you say thank you?"

"Thank-you" Amelia's friend yelled without looking in my direction. I turned to the guy who'd prompted her. "I'm Nick, Maisie's dad" extending his hand, which I shook.

"Eric" I said, going for simplicity.

"So, you're Amelia's dad?" he asked. Fuck, I thought, we hadn't really covered this in the whole you-are-just-my-partner thing that Sookie had tried to drum into me. "Um, step-dad" I said, because 'mother's partner' didn't sound like a real thing, and who wants to be the creepy guy in the playground without a good reason, right?

"Oh, right. Yeah, I think I've seen you here before in the mornings. Normally at that stage they're trying to rope me into reading them a story though."

I laughed. "I always get stuck in the sandpit when I pick up Amelia."

We chatted for a bit, and helped the girls on and off the climbing frame they were on. After a while someone who was apparently Connor's dad joined us. Then a dark-haired woman came over and started talking to Nick. "Eric, this is my wife, Becs. This is Amelia's step-dad."

"Hi" I said.

"Oh" said Becs, looking at me, then over at Sookie. "So, you're with Sookie?" I realised this was the moment when it could go horribly wrong. "Yeah, but we're not married. Officially. Yet." I rambled in an attempt to prevent any misunderstandings which were going to cause problems for me later on.

Becs looked a bit confused. "OK" she said. "Well it's nice to meet you" and with that she was off again, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Thank fuck I'd made it through that one. However Nick then turned to me and said "So has she made you set a date yet?" Date for what, I wondered, and then I realised what I'd done. Fuck. Now we weren't married, we were engaged.

"No" I said. "Not yet."

"Well, it will come. Sooner than you bloody expect!" Nick burst out laughing at that, and I joined in while trying to keep an eye on his wife to make sure she wasn't going anywhere near Sookie.

I seemed to be in the clear though. I took Amelia to get her face painted with flowers, which she announced to Sookie she wasn't going to wash off before bed, while Sookie muttered about having to clean pillowcases.

Then we had to wait for Santa to appear and the lolly scramble, which actually turned out to be Santa just giving candy to the kids. Sookie said that when she was little the scramble was a scramble and they just used to throw handfuls of candy into groups of small children and let them fight it out themselves. Apparently her brother was particularly good at getting a lot of the loot, but 'no bloody use' at sharing any of it with his sister.

We got home and put two very tired kids to bed, Amelia still in her face paint. Sookie said I should make us some coffee so we could try out some of the 'fancy' stuff I'd bought that morning.

When we were sitting in the living room with our cups she turned to me and said "Well that wasn't so bad was it?"

"Nope."

"Only one person thought we were married this time." I froze, waiting for the yelling to start. "One of the teachers."

"I swear, I didn't say anything to anyone. Or let them think anything. And I don't think I even talked to any of the teachers."

"No, I know" Sookie said, giving me a funny look. "She's pretty new so she wouldn't have known otherwise."

I relaxed again, figuring I was in the clear. "Would it really be that bad though?" I asked "actually being married to me?"

"No, of course it wouldn't. But it's just not true, so I don't want people to think things about me that aren't true. God knows, they probably have enough weird ideas about me as it is, given the whole Bill drama."

"But that's separate to us."

"Well it is, but its part of my history I guess. And I can't escape from it that easily."

I was trying to think of something else to say to make Sookie see that it really didn't fucking matter what anyone else thought of her, because I, well I thought she was wonderful. And possibly I loved her. But then the phone rang and Sookie went to answer it.

SPOV

We had a nice time at the pre-school Christmas party. I guess it's one of the benefits of Christmas in summer is that you can make the most of the evenings being warmer and lighter. Amelia was pretty hyped up by the end of it, and Felicia enjoyed watching the bigger kids. For some reason they didn't scare her in the same way strange adults did.

Eric I noticed spent some of his time chatting to some of the other dads. He actually seems to fit in most places you take him which is nice. Bill was a bit clingier. God, I thought, I hope Felicia's clingy stage doesn't last into her thirties.

When we got back I got a phone call from Judith informing me there was a barbecue at their place on Saturday night to do the Christmas present handover with the Comptons. Oh joy I thought. But I didn't have the luxury of a big family of my own so I was reluctant to cut Amelia and Felicia off from their aunts. And Judith and Calvin were fine; it was just the rest of them that weren't. Mostly it was Lorena.

"How's your mum?" I asked Judith.

Judith sighed. "She's OK. She's talking to Portia again, but they're both upset with Sarah because she and Matt are thinking about moving to Whangarei to live on some land that Matt's family owns because it will be cheaper. Mum thinks it will upset the kids too much, but it's not really her decision. I doubt that Sarah will ever get herself organised to actually go though, so it's probably not worth them all stressing about."

I agreed that she was probably right, and then finished up the call after finding out what she wanted me to bring on Saturday night.

I went back into the living room to where Eric was flipping through the TV channels. "So, still nothing on even with Sky?" I asked.

"Nope" he said and switched it off. "Want a shower before bed? I think I brought home some of the sandpit with me."

"Yeah, go on then. I read something in somewhere that a warm shower before bed helps you sleep better." I switched off the Christmas tree lights and followed Eric out of the room.

"Well, far be it from me to argue with anything reported in 'Somewhere'. It's a very well-respected publication from all accounts" Eric said, raising his eyebrows at me and making me giggle.

We managed to get ourselves arranged in the shower without knocking anything off the shelves and Eric seemed to forget about any sand he might have and spent a long time washing me. After a while I said "Eric, they're just boobs."

"They're not _just_ boobs" he said. "They're fucking fantastic boobs. We're very lucky to have them." With that he carried on with what he was doing.

"_We're_ very lucky to have them?"

"Yup, we're sharing them. It only seems fair."

"Were you going to tell me about this?"

He shrugged. "I figured you knew by now." Then he looked up and smiled at me, and I laughed. We kissed and I said "OK, I get to wash you now."

The warm water was threatening to run out when I finally managed to persuade Eric it was time to get out. He sighed, and looked me up and down. "You know" he said, "if you were taller we could try having sex in here."

I laughed. "I love the way you say that as if it's my height that's the problem!"

"Well, you know, from my perspective it is."

I managed to get myself mostly dry before he started hustling me towards the bed. My hair was still wet and it was going to be a write-off in the morning. Oh well. We tumbled into bed where Eric claimed a playground injury meant I had to be on top. Also he wanted to assert his visitation rights with my boobs. It was hard to protest when he just kept making me giggle.

Later on, when I was feeling warm and sleepy and relaxed I curled into Eric's side and put my head on his gorgeous chest. "I love..." I said, pausing to think about what I wanted to say "I love that it's fun. With you. That you make me laugh, and we have a good time. Thank you for that." I looked up at Eric and went to kiss him, but he looked a bit puzzled, or something.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Thank you. I like that it's fun too" he said, kissing me, very passionately. Wow. I always loved kissing Eric, but that was a particularly good kiss.

I cuddled back down and Eric stroked my back until I fell asleep, feeling very warm and content and safe. And like I was right where I belonged.

EPOV

For a split second I thought that Sookie was going to tell me that she loved me and the whole world stood still. Then she didn't, and all I could hear was the blood pounding in my ears. She told me I was fun instead. It really fucking wasn't the same thing.

Maybe she didn't love me? Maybe that was behind the whole 'let's make sure no one even dreams we're married' shit? Surely by now though she felt something? I didn't fucking know. This was not my area of expertise, as we'd already established.

Fuck, I thought. Maybe if I told her I loved her she'd say she loved me? And then it would all be OK.

While I'd been lost in thought though, Sookie had drifted off to sleep. So all I could do was hold her close and whisper "Sookie, I love you very much". You never knew, there was always a chance that whole subliminal message shit would actually work. And if it didn't, I was sure I'd find a chance to say it to her when she was awake. Someday. Soon.

**Thanks for reading!**


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N Thank you all so much for the reviews! They really make my day (or night).**

**Disclaimer: Haven't managed to make Eric real yet. Bum.**

SPOV

The next couple of days went by without much incident. Eric and Felicia and I hung out and did chores at home and tried to avoid going near the shops as it would be mayhem with everyone out Christmas shopping.

Friday morning though, it all went a bit to poo. For one thing, it was pouring with rain. Absolutely bucketing down, making it all feel a bit close and humid. Although nowhere near as humid as it can feel in February.

I woke up with the telltale tightness in my skull that said a headache was coming. A bad one. I did a quick calculation of the date. Yep, period tension headache. Terrific.

I wriggled out from under Eric who seemed reluctant to let me go even though he didn't actually wake up, and I went to the kitchen in search of some ibuprofen. Hopefully that would work. I didn't want to have to pull out the big guns. I thought maybe coffee would help too, because caffeine does something to blood vessels I'd read, so it helps get rid of a headache. So I put the coffee on and sat down with a cup when it was ready, watching the rain run down the glass doors to the deck.

When I'd just about finished my coffee, Eric came padding out looking worried. "Hey" he said "You weren't there when I woke up and it was so quiet." He sat down next to me and looked at me. "Are you OK?"

"Headache" I said. "Really nasty period headache. Which must mean it's coming soon. Hopefully the painkillers kick in before too long. And the coffee."

"Yeah, you look really pale."

"I don't feel that great at all."

"Is there anything else you can do?"

"I'll just have to wait it out. I can take stronger painkillers, but they knock me out so I can sleep it off. And I can't do that with kids."

At that Amelia came stomping down the hall and I started to stand up so I could get her breakfast, but Eric looked at me and said "No, it's OK. You stay here" and he stood up and went to see what she wanted.

I did the best I could through the morning. Amelia is really loud, and actually so is Felicia when she starts squealing. I tried everything I could think of. I stood under the warm water in the shower in the hope it would help with the pain that was radiating down my neck and shoulder. I got out the wheat bag and tried that. But nothing worked. By lunchtime the pain was worse than before. My neck hurt, my face hurt, my teeth even hurt. I felt a bit sick and there were spots in my vision where there shouldn't be spots. Shit. We'd wandered into migraine territory.

Eric was in the living room trying to entertain Amelia and Felicia which is no easy task on a rainy day. He stood up and came over to me. "You really don't look very well" he said, putting his hands on my shoulders.

"Yeah, um. It's not good. Listen, I think I need to take something stronger and just have a lie down. Will you be alright? Felicia should be going down for a nap soon anyway."

"Yeah. Yeah, we'll be fine. You just rest and try to get over it" he kissed my forehead and went back to the kids, while I went to find my migraine pills. I then went and lay on the bed, listening to the rain on the roof until everything faded away for a bit.

EPOV

Sookie freaked me out a bit on Friday morning. She was so pale and quiet and she'd wince everytime she moved. It was horrible to watch. Especially when Amelia was shouting at her, it didn't matter how many times you told her to just use a normal speaking voice, she couldn't seem to grasp the fucking concept.

I was almost glad when she said she was going to bed. There was just nothing I could do for her, so I hated to see her like that. Of course I would have quite liked to be going to be with her, even if it was to just hold her, but I was in charge of two very bored children. Fuck. What the hell were we going to do for the afternoon?

Felicia went for a nap too and I switched the TV on for Amelia in desperation. Something called Dora was on; it seemed to involve a small girl and a lot of shouting. I wondered if that's where Amelia got it from.

I wasn't sure what to do next. I wondered what Sookie would do? I looked around and saw there was a basket of clean washing that needed folding. I peered at its contents. Yeah, I wasn't the underpants fairy and had no idea where most of the stuff went, so I thought I'd find something else. I thought of vacuuming, but maybe that would disturb everyone who was sleeping. In the end I gave up and sat on the couch with Amelia trying to read the paper while she asked me questions about what was going on in the programme as if I fucking knew. In the end I asked her why she didn't just watch it herself.

"Oh" she said "I've seen this one before. Dora has to get to school."

At that point I gave up and just made a lot of affirmative noises every time Amelia asked a question. That seemed OK.

Felicia yelled when she wanted to get up and I could escape for a bit. Although there was a less than pleasant smell around her when I picked her up. Fuck. I was stuck with the baby with the poopy diaper again. I hoped it would go better than last time, I'd changed a few diapers since but they weren't ones that had been pooped in.

Felicia looked happy enough when I put her on the change table. I hoped it stayed that way. I took off her shorts, held my breath and opened the diaper. It was bad, but not as bad as I'd seen. At least everything was still in the diaper. I still didn't know what the hell we were feeding her to produce quite all that disgusting stuff, but I got it into a bag, got Felicia cleaned up and dressed without any of it getting anywhere it shouldn't.

I felt quite pleased and wanted to tell someone. Only there was no one to tell. Well there was Amelia, but most of the time she showed a complete lack of interest in anyone else. She probably wasn't going to be interested in any sense of achievement I felt in changing her sister's diaper.

I put Felicia on the floor of the living room. Amelia looked at me. "Home's borin'" she said. Yeah, I could kind of get her point. It was boring without Sookie. How did she cope with this all day every day?

I left Amelia building towers for Felicia with Felicia's blocks and went to check on Sookie. She was awake, but only just. She looked rather spaced out.

"How are you?" I asked.

"I've been better. The headache's still there. I just need sleep. But we're running low on nappies and I need to go out."

"No, it's OK. I can do it."

"Well I better get up anyway so I can look after the kids." She started to haul herself up. "Ugh, that's not good, my whole skull is pulsing."

"You stay there; I'll take them with me."

Sookie looked at me. "You sure?"

"Yeah, we need to get out of the house anyway." As if on cue there was a shout from Amelia and the sound of Felicia bursting into tears. "Hang on" I said, while I went to investigate what was happening. It looked as though Felicia had touched the blocks and had been yelled at then burst into tears. It was all over by the time I got there, so I went back to Sookie, who was lying down again.

"If you're sure" she murmured "then it would save me going, and I'd be very grateful."

"Yeah, I know. It's no problem." I leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek before going to get everyone organised.

We weren't going on a particularly long trip, but as I stood in the kitchen trying to work out what I needed to take for everyone, I started to appreciate why Sookie made lists. I had the diaper bag for Felicia, but what did you take for Amelia? Snacks I thought, as I rummaged in the pantry for a muesli bar and a packet of raisins and put that with Felicia's things. I couldn't think of anything else.

Getting everyone into the car in the pouring rain required a few trips with an umbrella and even then I got wet while standing there to do up the buckles on each car seat. Amelia was happy to be leaving the house and Felicia just seemed a bit confused. I backed out of the driveway and was part way down the road before I realised I didn't have Felicia's stroller, which meant I had to drive back, go in the house to get Sookie's car keys, and get the thing out of the trunk of her car. It confused Amelia who kept asking why we were going back and made me even wetter as I'd run through the rain without putting the umbrella up again.

I tried to think where we could go where there would be undercover parking. The only place I could think of would be St Luke's, which would be fucking crazy this close to Christmas. But maybe we'd be lucky. I didn't fancy having to unpack everyone in the rain.

So St Luke's it was and the carpark was heaving. I pulled to one side of one of the rows while Amelia interrogated me about why we had stopped without leaving the car.

Eventually I saw someone leaving and pulled forward to take their spot, putting my indicator on. However some fucking woman in a mini was coming from the other direction and zipped in first. Fuck. That was all I needed, to spend longer stuck here with Amelia chatting to me. I really wanted to get out of the car and yell at the stupid bitch, who had quite obviously seen me, but I knew that would just get reported back to Sookie at some point.

So we were stuck waiting for a parking space again. Amelia decided to pass the time by singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star about 600 fucking times. Felicia had thrown the toys she had been holding onto the seat and was now chewing one of the socks I'd put on her feet before she'd left.

Eventually another spot appeared and I took it. It felt like we'd already been here for fucking hours and we hadn't even got out of the car yet. I unpacked the stroller and put Felicia in it, now minus her socks which were saturated, with Amelia pouting because she wanted to get out first. I didn't trust her not to run off into the traffic, so no way was I falling for that one.

We made it into the mall and it was fucking busy. There were people everywhere. I tried to get Amelia to hold my hand but she wanted to skip ahead, which meant she skipped in front of a whole lot of people who were trying to rush through their shopping and nearly caused several accidents, so I was apologising left, right and centre. Fuck. In the end I grabbed her arm and told her she had to hold my hand or I was putting her back in the car, by herself. She huffed, but complied.

Felicia kept throwing the cat toy she had out of her stroller, meaning I had to stop every few paces to pick it up and run the risk of being knocked down by busy shoppers myself. Eventually I figured out it was supposed to clip onto the seatbelt bit of the stroller. That fixed her.

We still hadn't actually made it to the supermarket. How the fuck did Sookie ever get anything done?

And then we got there. The supermarket. I only had to get one thing and get out again. I looked over at the checkouts which all had long queues. Fuck. In doing so, I'd turned my attention from Amelia who'd taken off again. She'd made a beeline for the strawberries.

"Can we get strawberries Eric? Please?"

Well that wasn't the worst thing she could ask for, I figured. "Yeah, we can get strawberries." I grabbed a couple of the boxes and we headed off so I could find the aisle with the diapers. It took us a couple of passes before I remembered to look for the sign saying nappies. We got there and I soon realised what I'd done wrong. I hadn't fucking looked at which diapers Felicia used. Fuck. There were a lot of diapers there. I knew I was looking for pink ones, but which fucking size I didn't know. I suppose I could have estimated her weight, but when I looked at the packets it was all listed in kilograms which were no fucking use to me. How much was a kilogram? Why couldn't they use pounds like normal people?

Feeling desperate I asked Amelia which ones Felicia used. She pointed to a packet and said "Those ones." I looked where she was pointing. It said Newborn. I looked at Felicia. I was pretty sure she wasn't classed as a newborn.

In the end I grabbed a packet that said Crawler feeling sure that was her category. She could crawl. I knew that much.

We joined the queue for the 12 items or less checkouts, which looked long but was moving pretty quickly. But not fast enough as we ended up stationed in front of a display of candy. "Can I have a lollipop?" Amelia piped up.

"No."

"But I was a good girl. I want a treat."

"You've got strawberries. That's a treat."

"Strawberries aren't a treat. They're _strawberries_." Amelia was now talking to me like I was an idiot.

"Yes, they're a treat and you won't be getting those if you don't stop asking about lollipops."

Amelia pouted but shut up. I caught the eye of the woman in front of me who had a very well behaved looking little boy sitting in her shopping trolley, and she smiled at me, just as Amelia said "Can I have an ice cream?"

"We'll see" I replied, and then we finally got to the checkout.

Once I'd paid and made it through the checkout we were back into the crowd of people in the mall. Amelia stared longingly at the ice cream stand that was just outside the supermarket. Fine, I thought, let's get an ice cream.

So we queued up and I got us two tubs of ice cream and we sat down at one of the little tables they had. Fuck it was nice to sit down, even in the middle of a busy mall. I couldn't believe that we'd been out for such a simple errand and I felt like I'd run a marathon.

Amelia was busy eating her ice cream, a lot of which she was wearing around her face. Felicia was looking at me and licking her lips. I felt a bit sorry for her missing out, so I gave her a little bit of my ice cream on the spoon to try. It was only vanilla ice cream. I figured it probably wasn't going to hurt her. She pulled a face at the cold, then obviously got used to it as she looked at me expectantly, waiting for more. I gave her a bit more. She couldn't tell Sookie.

Amelia was making inroads into her chocolate ice cream when she suddenly said "Eric, I'm thirsty."

"Oh, well, you'll have to wait."

"But I'm thirsty now. Where's my water bottle?"

"What water bottle?"

"Mum always brings my water? Where's my water?"

Oh fuck I thought, giving Felicia another taste of my ice cream which was pretty much all gone now. "OK" I said. "Look you stay here. DO NOT MOVE from that seat. I'll go and buy you some water." So I went and queued back up at the ice cream stand and paid for their expensive bottled water, while keeping an eye on Amelia. Thankfully she was too absorbed in the ice cream to run off anywhere.

I took the water back to Amelia who took two tiny sips and then ignored it. Eventually she declared she'd had enough ice cream and I cleaned her up as best I could with some serviettes. She was really sticky.

"Right, let's get going" I said, taking Amelia's sticky hand in mine and we started to make our way through the crowds. We were almost back to the entrance to the carpark when Amelia said "Eric! I need wees!"

"What?" I asked.

"I need wees. The toilet. I need to _go_!"

"Well, can you wait until we go home?"

"No I need to go now!"

"OK" I sighed. I turned us around and we headed back in the direction of where I'd seen Sookie take Amelia when were here before. There was something called the Parent's Room apparently. We went in and I felt completely out of my depth, there were women in there feeding babies. Breastfeeding babies. Yeah, I really was not fucking looking at that.

The toilet was straight ahead of us and I tried to send Amelia in alone, but apparently I needed to come too. I wasn't sure what to do with Felicia, so I just parked the stroller to one side and hoped none of the women were babynappers. Luckily Amelia didn't need any help with actually going to the toilet, the fact that they had a miniature toilet her size helped. I think she just wanted to have someone to talk to.

When she was finished we could finally, finally leave the mall. I got everyone back in the car under the watchful gaze of about three other cars who were all waiting for spots. Good luck to them I thought. It took a while to manoeuvre out of the carpark as there were so many people waiting, and then a queue to turn out, but soon we were back driving along in the pouring rain to the sound of Amelia singing Incy Wincy Spider.

I don't think I'd ever been quite so fucking glad to get back home.

I got wet again getting everyone and everything back out of the car and once inside I put the diapers in the Felicia's room. Thank fuck they looked like the same ones she already had. I'd managed to do something right.

I took the strawberries into the kitchen. "Eric" Amelia said, wandering in. "I'm bored."

"Well, go and play with your Barbies or something." I was out of ideas and needed to sit down.

Amelia huffed a bit but wandered off. I went in to check on Sookie, who woke up and looked dreadful. She sent me off to bring her more water so she could take more of her migraine tablets and then she was out for the count again. So it was just me for a bit longer.

At dinner time I discovered two things. One was that if you dig really far into the freezer you can find where Sookie has stashed her 'emergency' frozen pizza. The other was that Amelia will eat quite a lot of pizza if you let her drown it in ketchup. And Felicia likes to chew the crusts.

While we were eating Amelia looked at me. "Eric" she asked. "Where's the vegetables? I think there's supposed to be vegetables?"

I peered at the pizza we were eating. "I think there's vegetables on the pizza?" I said, sounding unconvinced even to myself.

Amelia looked as well. "What vegetables?"

"Um, tomato?" That was in the sauce, anyway. Thank fuck that seemed to be enough for Amelia and she shut up for a while. We had the strawberries for dessert anyway, so that surely cancelled out the pizza. And I may have been able to sell them as a special treat.

After dinner I had to give Felicia a bottle, while Amelia told us some really bizarre story about a dragon and a witch. Then I had to bathe the pair of them, and get them into bed. After reading a story to Amelia. And persuading Felicia she didn't want to crawl around the crib, but actually lie down.

Finally the house was quiet. It was only 7.30pm but I was exhausted. I made coffee for myself and sat in the living room, flipping through channels. I soon realised I was fucking lonely as well. Was this what it was like for Sookie when she lived alone? Fuck. How the hell did she stand it? I had a whole new respect for her. One day and I was fed up.

By the time I finished my coffee I decided that I needed company, even if that company was currently in a state of drug induced sleep. So I took the book I was reading, something on the American Civil War that had probably once belonged to Bill, and went to sit in bed next to Sookie.

And I thought maybe I could practice saying 'I love you' to her some more. Since I'd said it that first time, when she was asleep, I said it every night. But only after I knew she was asleep. I was maybe hoping for the whole subliminal message thing to work, but maybe I was also scared of what her reaction would be. But I liked to say it. Even if she didn't say it back. Or hear me.

So I got into bed and kissed her softly, said 'I love you' and sat there reading for a while before she woke up and rubbed her eyes and asked what the time was.

"About 9 o'clock."

"Shit. Are the kids OK? Sorry I left you like that."

"It's fine. They're fine. How are you?"

"The headache is wearing off, but I just feel so washed out. Those pills always do that to me. I feel all drugged up."

"Are you hungry?"

"A bit. Not for much though. Maybe some toast and marmite?"

"I'll get it."

I got out of bed and went to make her some toast with that disgusting marmite stuff spread on it. When I got back with it, Sookie had changed into her pyjamas and put the TV on. It was some boring cooking thing with Gordon Ramsay. I sighed, but I didn't have the heart to make her change over, so I sat back in bed and picked up the book again."

Sookie was quiet while she ate her toast, then she got up and took her plate out to the kitchen, switching off the TV. I watched, half afraid she was just going to collapse or something but she was OK. She brushed her teeth on the way back to bed, and then I went and did the same, before stripping down to my boxers and getting into bed.

"Thank you for looking after everything today" she whispered, still sounding very dreamy and spaced out.

"No problem. It was fine. I'd do it again." Fuck I thought, I hope this doesn't happen every month.

"Can you rub my neck for a bit? It's still really sore?"

She lay on her side, facing away from me, and I rubbed her neck and shoulder for her. "That's really good, you're very good at that" she said.

I kissed the spot where her neck met her shoulder. "That helps" she said sleepily.

I kept rubbing and eventually she was very quiet and all I could hear was her regular breathing.

"I love you Sookie" I said, kissing her neck again, before reaching to turn off the light. I lay down against her back and put an arm over her side.

"Yeah" Sookie said, in her dreamy, sleepy voice. "Love you. Night" And then she sighed and her leg twitched, and everything went really, really fucking quiet.

**Thanks for reading!**


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N Thanks again for all the reviews! I'm loving them.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

SPOV

I felt a lot more like myself when I woke up on Saturday morning. A slightly washed out version of myself due to all the drugs I'd taken, but at least I wasn't in pain anymore. I could also feel Eric, who was obviously awake because he was running a hand across my hip and nuzzling my shoulder.

I shuffled myself around so I was facing him. "Hi" I said.

"Hey" he said, stroking my cheek with his thumb and looking concerned. "How are you feeling?"

"Much better thank you. And thank you for looking after everything yesterday." I leaned over and kissed him.

"Oh, that's OK."

"Did they drive you nuts?" I asked. Eric looked like he didn't know what to say. "Um" he said finally, "not _all_ the time."

I laughed. "How was the supermarket?"

"We went to St Luke's. It was crazy."

"You went to St Luke's? That's brave. It's a week until Christmas."

"It was raining. I needed somewhere that had covered parking. It seems to be pretty uncommon around here."

"Yeah. Sorry. I should have got up and gone and then I could have just run in somewhere."

"Nah its fine. We survived. There was ice cream."

I laughed. "I wonder who suggested that?"

"If I have to give you a hint then I'm really worried about what those drugs did to you."

"Yeah, they do knock me out. I once took some before going to a work Christmas party, which was a cruise round the harbour, and ended up asleep downstairs in the cabin of the boat while everyone partied above. I have no memories of any of that night." I kissed Eric again. "Thank you though. You're really great. I…" I kissed him again "…am very lucky to have you."

I looked into Eric's eyes and he had that slightly puzzled look again. Maybe, a hurt look? "What's wrong?" I asked.

Eric shook it off. "Nothing" he said. "I was just worried about you."

"Oh don't be. This happens every few months. Although the pill helps. I should maybe think about starting that again." I looked over Eric to see what the time was. "Hey, we might be early enough to shower together. Give me a minute to go to the loo and I'll see you in there, OK?"

"Yep, sounds good." Eric sounded a bit off though, which was worrying. I hoped nothing too bad had happened while I was out of it the previous day. I headed off to the bathroom hoping that he'd cheer up a bit.

EPOV

I watched Sookie go into the bathroom, and then lay back on the bed. "Fuck" I muttered under my breath. She'd said that she loved me, but now she couldn't fucking remember it. Maybe it was just the drugs talking and it wasn't really true? She wouldn't lie to me though, would she? I lay there going over and over everything. I was pretty sure she wouldn't lie, she was always so worried that people might think something about her that wasn't true, she surely wouldn't be fucking lying to me.

No, I finally decided, she wouldn't lie. She just didn't know she'd said it, which was a whole other fucking problem. I wasn't quite convinced that if I said it to her first she'd say it back. I was out of ideas. And I could hear the shower running. I got out of bed and went to distract myself with the deliciousness that was a wet, naked Sookie.

SPOV

Eric seemed to take a long time to appear in the shower, which was really unlike him. I wondered what on earth was going on in his head, but my thoughts got cut off when he actually arrived and started kissing me. When I was allowed up for some air he said "Did it come?"

I was a bit lost and just said "Mmm?"

"Your period."

"Oh. No, not yet. I guess it will later on today."

"OK." Eric said and then he kissed me again and kind of pushed me up against the wall of the shower, managing this time avoid the shelves.

I was feeling decidedly breathless, and it wasn't just because Eric was kissing me like there was no tomorrow. All this contact with a naked Eric was making me feel hot and squirmy.

Eric was looking a bit breathless as well. He cupped a hand over my breast and rubbed the nipple with his thumb. Then the hand continued down my side, and rubbed my backside, before coming across to settle between my legs. He started rubbing in gentle circles, which made me arch my back and encouraged Eric to take one of my nipples in his mouth. I ground against his palm and he slid one, then two fingers inside me. I moaned Eric's name and he brought his face up to kiss me again. And then I came and I just felt like all my bones melted away.

Eric removed his hand and just looked down at me, like he wanted to say something. But he didn't. "Your turn?" I asked instead, reaching down to grasp his penis, he closed his eyes briefly and then opened them again, staring down at me. I kept my hand moving then brought my other hand in to join it. All the while Eric just kept his eyes locked on mine. It was intense. Maybe too intense.

I decided I'd try something else and I knelt down so the water was beating on my head and took Eric's penis in my mouth, which got a moan of "Sookie" out of him. I worked my mouth up and down the shaft, running my tongue around the head each time. Eric moaned my name again, and then placed his hands lightly on my head. Then with a shudder he came.

When he finished pulsing I released him from my mouth and stood up. Eric smiled at me. "You're still fucking fantastic at that" he said.

I giggled, and reached for the shampoo. "Come on" I said, "it's a race now to see what lasts longer, the hot water or the kids staying asleep."

We made it out of the shower in time to hear Amelia and Felicia both shout for attention. Amelia appeared wearing her good dress and had to be sent back to change, which caused a lot of pouting, but she cheered up a bit when I promised her she could wear it to the barbecue later on. Felicia just alerted us to the fact of her being awake by yelling "Bubbubbubbubbub" really loudly.

I had kind of missed the pair of them. However they didn't seem to have missed me all that much, it was like I hadn't spent most of the day in bed at all. Oh well. I guess no one's completely irreplaceable.

The rain was thankfully easing up, and there were only a couple of showers early in the morning before the sun broke through. I was glad because otherwise we would have ended up in the house at Judith and Calvin's which would have been a bit squashed. I really couldn't face being trapped in a small space with Lorena at the moment.

I made pasta salad to take with us while Eric took the kids to the park. I checked he would be OK on his own and he looked at me like I was just insulting him. Yeah, I thought, I guess St Luke's a week before Christmas is probably worse. He did look a bit confused when I handed him a towel before he left though. "For the swings and slides" I said "because they'll be wet from the rain still."

"Oh" Eric said. "That's a really good idea."

"Well, see. You still need me around for something!"

Eric laughed. "I need you around for lots of things." Then he kissed me and the three of them headed out the door, with Amelia saying "Why is Felicia coming? She's just a baby!" and Felicia going "Bub! Bub! Bub!"

It was quiet without them. I made the pasta salad and another batch of Christmas mince pies. And a bacon and egg pie. I started to get a bit worried. What could go wrong at the park?

Eventually they all arrived back. They had apparently detoured home to get ice cream at the dairy. And Amelia was clutching a handful of rather bedraggled daisies which she'd obviously picked off a grass verge somewhere. "We got you flowers!" she announced brightly.

"Oh, thank you sweetheart." I said, carefully picking them out of her hand before going off to try to find something small enough for me to put them in.

Eric lifted Felicia out of the pushchair and put her on the floor. "There's bacon and egg pie for lunch" I said.

"Oooh" said Eric "See that's definitely what I keep you around for."

"Thanks very much!" I said.

"Oh, come on" Eric grabbed me in a hug. "You know I lo...like all sorts of things you do, but I am really fond of that pie." Then he kissed me.

Mid afternoon we got everyone in the car and headed over to Judith and Calvin's. Amelia was wearing her dress and was thrilled. Felicia was wearing a t-shirt and shorts and couldn't care less.

I just wanted this over with. I didn't have great memories about the last time we'd done this and I was just hoping nothing went spectacularly wrong tonight. Maybe Lorena would be too sick to come?

EPOV

I'd come really fucking close to blurting out to Sookie that I loved her. I should probably have done it. But I wasn't sure what I'd get back. Fuck.

Sookie seemed a bit tense going to the barbecue. I guess she didn't want to hang out with Bill's family either. I was at a bit of a loss why we were but I'd figured out by now that it didn't pay to question it. I was better off just going along with the plan and making sure everyone got out in one piece.

We unloaded everyone and everything; not only did we have all the stuff for the kids, but there were a truck-load of presents and food as well. Thank fuck it had stopped raining so we could at least be outside. Sookie had said something about having to put the barbecue in the garage if it was still raining, which sounded bizarre, but apparently this is Auckland and it wouldn't be the first time. OK then.

Once everyone was settled, Sookie gave me a cooler full of meat to take over to Calvin, who was standing by the barbecue. "Hey, Eric man!" he said when he saw me. "How are you?"

"Great, yeah. Thanks." I got a handshake and he handed me a can of something. I took a look. Bourbon and coke. Fuck. Yeah, that's what I was drinking at the last barbecue. I wasn't sure if I could risk it. Could I? Yeah, I'd be OK. I'd just sip it.

I opened it and took a drink. "So, you're staying in Auckland then?" Calvin asked.

"Yeah, I need to get residency I guess."

Calvin snorted. "Yeah, I got mine through Judith. Having Jessica helped. Will Sookie sponsor you?"

I shrugged. I didn't know. "Possibly."

"Yeah, it's a good way to go. Hey Jessica, don't carry the kitten like that!"

I looked over to where Amelia and Jessica seemed to be torturing some poor kitten, which Jessica was currently carrying upside down. Fuck. I bet Bob was glad he was too fat for that. Calvin carried on "We got her that for a Christmas present. She loves the thing. It's called Fifi apparently. Although that might change tomorrow. Hey! Jessie! I said no!"

Jessica dropped the kitten. On it's head. It rolled away without a problem though. Kittens were tough apparently.

"Still, you're in a much better position for residency than some. My mate Charles.." at this he gestured to some guy standing over by the sister who liked God but who's name I couldn't remember, "…is single and doesn't have the skills that will get the right number of points so he's pretty fucked. He's trying to find a way around it with an immigration consultant at the moment."

"Oh, right."

Calvin put some more steaks on the barbecue and I looked over to where Sookie was carrying some of the food out to the picnic table. I was lost in thought contemplating whether she loved me enough to sponsor me when I realised Calvin was talking to me again "Hey Eric" he said "do you run?"

SPOV

So far the barbecue seemed to be going OK. Amelia and Jessica weren't fighting because there was a kitten to distract them. Portia had found some new guy, a South African friend of Calvin's, to try to convert, Sarah and her family weren't here yet, of course, and Lorena was keeping out of my way.

There had been a lovely moment when we first arrived. Eric carried Felicia in and Lorena went to say hello to her, but she burst into tears. I didn't blame her. Eric said "Oh, she's just having a clingy stage" and walked off to put Felicia down on a picnic rug. Go Felicia, I thought.

Since then he'd been hanging out near the barbecue with Calvin. And drinking. Although he didn't seem to drinking too much. He was watching me a lot though. An awful lot. There was still something going on there.

I helped Judith with the food, and took a phone call from Sarah who swore she was 'just walking out the door now' which meant we could expect her in about an hour, given she was a good thirty minute drive away. God she was useless. We'd have to serve the food soon and just hope they got here in time to hand out presents.

I was watching the kids for a bit to make sure that poor kitten made it to Christmas when that friend of Calvin's, Charles, came over to me. We chatted for a bit. He seemed really lonely. I guess it's hard at Christmas when you don't know anyone, although apparently he now had an invitation to Portia's church on Christmas day.

He was actually kind of boring. After a while I realised he was really really boring. Maybe he would be a good match for Portia? I wanted to get away and talk to someone normal, like Eric, but I couldn't think of a polite way to do it. I glanced over at Eric who was just starting at us. Well, actually he was mostly staring at Charles. Like he wanted to kill him. Oh, good grief, I thought. Can I not even talk to another man without him going all jealously homicidal?

By the time I did finally manage to extricate myself from Charles who was busy telling me how much nicer it was in South Africa (so why he was moving here was beyond me) I was so fed up with Eric's dirty looks that I'd lost all desire to talk to him at all. I went back inside again to see if there was anything else Judith needed help with, but apparently she was good, and she was going outside now. So I had no choice to turn around and go back out again. Where I just about ran straight into Eric. It may have been PMT talking but I couldn't help myself. I just looked at him and said "What the hell is your problem?"

EPOV

I'd been watching Sookie talking to the total dickwad that Calvin had unearthed and invited to his barbecue. He spent most of his time talking to Sookie's chest. Fuck. I really hoped he wasn't thinking she was his ticket to residency in New Zealand. There had to be a way of keeping these assholes away from Sookie.

She finally left him to go inside the house and I decided it was probably an opportune time to make an appearance by her side. However, when I caught up to her she was pissed. At me. She asked me what my problem was.

"Nothing!" I said. "I was just coming to talk to you, that's allowed I take it?"

"Phft. You were coming to stake your claim. I've been watching you staring at me. Or at poor Charles more like. Am I not allowed to talk to anyone other than you Eric?"

"Of course you are. I just don't like to see other guys' slobbering all over you is all."

"He wasn't slobbering!"

"Sookie, he fucking was! The whole time you were talking to him his eyes didn't lift above your neck!"

"Oh Eric! Are we back to that again? Honestly, what are you going to do? Lock me away in case anyone else notices I have cleavage?"

"I don't have to fucking like it if he's staring at you."

"You don't have to fucking do anything Eric! Just butt out. Do you honestly think I'm going to run off with him or something? Just because I let you in the door I'm going take every other lonely foreign guy home with me? Shit, you always tell me I have to trust you, well you try fucking trusting me for once!"

With that Sookie stalked off. Fuck I thought. How did that happen? She just exploded and there was arm-waving and yelling and then poof, she disappeared.

I followed her and found her sitting on a bench by the fence. "What?" she said suspiciously when I approached.

I held up my hand in a gesture of surrender. "Look" I said "I'm not angry with you. I was a bit annoyed at that fucking dick, but it's nothing. Really." I sat down next to her. "And I do trust you. Of course I trust you."

Sookie glanced at me sideways and made a sort of phfft noise which suggested she thought otherwise.

"I do trust you! I wouldn't love you if I didn't trust you. I just don't necessarily trust everyone else. Because quite frankly that fucker's looking for a way to get residency." I looked at Sookie who was just staring at me.

"Back up a bit" she said.

"What to?" I asked.

"The 'you love me' bit." Oh fuck.

I looked at my feet. "Yeah, well…I do" I said quietly, sneaking a look in her direction.

"And you just decide to tell me now?"

"No. I've told you lots. You just haven't heard me. You did last night, before we went to sleep. And you said it back."

"I told you I loved you? While I was out of it on pain killers?"

"Yeah, you did. But I don't think it was the pain killers talking. Do you? Is it not true?" I was a bit fucking worried now. Maybe I'd done this wrong. Maybe I shouldn't have told her. Maybe it wasn't true and I'd fucking rushed the whole thing.

Sookie looked at me and blinked a few times. Her eyes glistened. Her lip wobbled slightly. Then she said "Fuck it!" really loudly and walked off again. I had no idea if that was good or bad. The only way I was going to find out though was if I followed her, so I did. I found her down the side of the house this time.

"Sookie, please don't walk off like that" I said, trying like fuck not to scare her off again.

She sighed and said "I did, didn't I? I did say it. I probably wouldn't have were I not partially doped up, but I did. Because it's true. Maybe those pills are like truth serum or something."

"So…just to clarify. You love me?"

"Yes."

"And I love you?"

"Why are you asking me?"

"OK, that's a yes then. And the yelling is over now?"

"What yelling?"

"OK. The bit where you talk slightly louder and tell me I'm a dick."

"Well, sometimes you are. But I love you anyway."

Sookie smiled at me and I grabbed her in a hug and kissed her. "OK then" I said "I think we're good. And we'd probably better get something to eat before it all goes." I put my arm around her shoulder as we started walking back to where everyone else was.

"Did you see how much steak there was? How is that all going to go? Honestly, South African's take this barbecue thing really seriously!"

"Yeah, Calvin does seem a bit keen on the whole thing."

Sookie laughed. "Well, you're his friend now so you'd know."

"Yeah, about that. I think I agreed to do a half-marathon with him. We start training on Monday. I have to be back here at 6am for a run."

Sookie started laughing so hard that she had to stop walking. "Oh Eric!" she said, wiping the tears away. "Good luck with that!"

**Thanks for reading!**


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N I know I've said it before, but thank you all again for the reviews! I love them so much and they really keep me going!**

**Disclaimer: All mine? Yeah, nah.**

SPOV

I really wasn't sure what made my night more, Eric telling me he loved me or Eric telling me he was getting up early to go for a run with Calvin. OK, it was probably the fact Eric loved me that was the best bit of the barbecue, but boy it was going to be funny to see him struggle out of bed at the crack of dawn to go running.

I don't know why Eric was so worried we weren't going to get fed; when we got back to where the food was being laid out there was steak everywhere. Sarah and family finally arrived, in a great commotion, as Eric and I went to get something to eat, so if anyone had noticed our absence they didn't really get a chance to say anything. Thankfully someone (probably Judith) had thought to get Amelia a plate of food and she was munching happily on a sausage. Felicia seemed to be warming up to everyone and was sitting at Lorena's feet saying "Bub" while watching to see what was going to happen next.

What did happen next was that Aunty Sarah went over to pick her up and she burst into tears again, which made Lorena smirk like there was no tomorrow. I had to go over and take my child off them before Felicia exploded because I'd abandoned her. Good thing she wasn't like that with Eric, because we had to eat in shifts holding her on our laps until she calmed down a bit.

I let Eric eat first and when he lent over to take Felicia off me so I could finally get to my dinner he kissed me behind the ear and whispered "You love me" before sitting back smiling. I rolled my eyes at him. "Yeah, well you can tell that by the fact that I let you eat first."

"No. I can tell by the fact that you told me" Eric replied, trying to stop Felicia grabbing his sunglasses again. He needed to find a better place for them than tucked in the neck of his shirt. I reached over and took them off him then stuck them in my bag which was under the chair I was sitting on.

"Thank you" Eric said, while Felicia just looked annoyed. Eric looked at her and said "See? That's why I love your mother. She's very helpful."

I couldn't really say a lot to that because I had a mouthful of steak, so I mumbled a general 'mmm-hmm' in his direction and gave him a thumbs-up.

Amelia appeared at that point. She was mostly covered in tomato sauce now. But needed more bread. And more sauce. So I stood up to help her before sitting back down. I sighed. Barbecues always seemed like a great family event, but somehow I always ended up eating cold chewy steak and covered in tomato sauce fingerprints.

I looked around at everyone else. Calvin was moving the last of the meat off the grill and onto the platters, while being talked at by his incredibly boring friend Charles. Sarah was telling Judith the long involved story as to why they were so late, and why Matt wasn't there (some 'workplace' injury) and proffering the watermelon she'd brought at a roadside stall on the way over. After all, she was supposed to be providing dessert. Good thing Judith had a 'back-up' pavlova in the kitchen.

Portia was boring Lorena with a story about the last church social she'd been to and how invaluable Portia had been in its organisation. Glen was sitting there with a plate piled high with steak, most of which I suspected he wouldn't eat but which Portia would take home for sandwiches later on. Stuffed in her handbag. Sarah's four kids were clustered around the food table randomly helping themselves. Thank God we'd already eaten because they were poking a lot of the food. And one of them was sneezing.

Jessica and Amelia were over feeding bits of sausage to the poor kitten. Or possibly throwing sausage at the kitten. While giggling a lot. I nudged Eric and sent him over to make sure they were behaving. He tried to argue that if the kitten didn't learn to run now it was just a candidate for natural selection, but he went. Eventually.

I just wished the whole thing would be over soon. At least Eric had dialled down the glances he was giving Charles now that he had turned his attention back to Portia, who appeared to be explaining how important she was to him. I wondered if maybe Eric was right and he was trying to find some poor unsuspecting woman to shack up with so he could stay here. Well, I figured if he had to live with Portia maybe he deserved residency as a reward. She was hard work.

Finally everyone was fed and dessert was served. The watermelon was popular with the kids at least. The pavlova was popular with Eric who told me it was a big meringue, like I'd never seen one before in my life. I'd seen one at just about every barbecue I'd ever been to, and every Christmas function. I'm kind of over them. But I said I'd make him one sometime if he really liked them. "Because you love me?" he asked.

"Because I'm a sucker for the puppy-dog eyes, probably."

"Yeah, that'll work too" he said, as he disappeared off to get seconds.

Once the food was done we could move inside for presents. My kids got plastic crap, which was fine because I gave their kids plastic crap. Lorena looked like the nightie I'd bought her might explode. She gave me the world's ugliest vase; it was probably from the $2 shop.

Sarah made fudge for all the adults. She'd either miscalculated or just had spare because Eric got some as well as me, which he was pleased about. Also in addition to giving me a rather nice photo frame, Judith and Calvin gave him the traditional sampler box of biscuits. I had to explain to Eric how every after-Christmas camping holiday ended up with Jason and I trying to eat all the best biscuits out of the sampler and how there'd be tears and fights if things weren't divided up evenly. And after about a month there were only the really boring ones left to feed to the birds. Eric promised to share the good ones with me without me having to threaten to hide his cricket bat. This might have meant more if he actually owned a cricket bat.

Portia said she forgot to bring my present with her. That was possibly a blessing.

After the general mayhem was over and the discarded wrapping paper was cleared away, Judith and Sarah went to organise tea and coffee. The night was nearly over and I was really looking forward to just going home.

Even Amelia was quite quiet on the way home, exhausted by her time bossing Jessica around. Eric was quiet too, and I wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. I hadn't noticed him bossing anyone so I had no idea what his reason might be. Probably best not to think too hard about what might be going through his head, I'd drive myself crazy.

We got everyone in the house and I sent Amelia off to change into her nightie, which she whinged about as she really wanted to stay in her dress. I went into the living room to turn off the radio, I'd borrowed an old trick of my mother's and left the radio on so any crazy Christmas-present thieves would think someone was home. Yeah, I had no idea if it would work. Mum was full of ideas like that though. Like you never have a For Sale sign outside your house in case someone turns up with a moving van and burgles you while your neighbours think you picked a random Wednesday afternoon to move. I wondered what dumb things I could pass on to Amelia and Felicia.

When I got there though, still with Felicia attached to my hip because I was too scared to put her down, the Opshop song from the TV ads came on. I stopped to listen. After a few seconds Eric came into the room and just stopped and looked at me, like he was trying to figure out what I was doing. "Oh, I love this song" I said, and moved to turn off the radio.

"Hang on. Do you want to dance then?" he asked. I gestured the half-asleep baby I was cuddling. "Um, can't really." "Come on" he said "she can dance too." He held out his hand.

So I put my one free hand on his shoulder and got as close as we could and we kind of moved from side to side. "I don't really know this song" Eric said.

"No, well it's a New Zealand song so you probably wouldn't. It got very popular when they used in the New Zealand Post ads, the ones that always make me cry."

"You cry at television ads?" Bum, I thought, shouldn't have mentioned that.

"Well motherhood makes you stupid sometimes."

Eric frowned. "You're not stupid."

"Hormonal then. A slave to your emotions. Whatever."

"I want to see these ads."

"Yeah, they don't play them anymore. We'd have to look on the internet."

At that point Amelia appeared, having finally relented and put on the Strawberry Shortcake nightie I'd put out for her, and she wanted to join in too. So Eric picked her up and we sort of shuffled around a bit in a group with Amelia giggling away, which prompted Felicia to wake up a bit and giggle too.

"Sorry" I said to Eric.

"What about?"

"Well, the dancing was a nice thought, but I'm not sure you really meant to include these two as well. Amelia, don't pull on Felicia's arm like that, it's actually attached."

"No, it's good. I kind of like it."

Well he was nice for saying so but I couldn't believe he'd be serious. I mean I love my kids, but even I could recognise that at this point in the day they were sticky and annoying.

The song had finished so I went off to get everyone off to bed. When I got back Eric was setting up his laptop and said he wanted to see the ads that made me cry. Oh terrific, I thought. Let's see if Sookie will cry. But I said OK and sat in his lap to watch the screen.

EPOV

Sookie telling me she loved me made the night really, because hanging with Bill's weird fucking family was not the way I would have chosen to spend the evening. Those women were lunatics. Calvin was OK, although I'm not sure what possessed me to agree to go running with him. I blame the fact I was a bit distracted by worrying about Sookie at the time.

As nice as it was though to hear her say she loved me, I was a bit fucking worried about what was supposed to happen next. Did she expect some big romantic gesture from me? I didn't fucking have a clue. I'd never got this far with anyone before. What the fuck did you do?

I could ask her to marry me? I wasn't quite sure we were on the same page with that one though. I still remembered the bit where I got yelled at for letting people think we were married. Would an actual proposal first make a difference?

And then I ran out of time to think anymore because we were home and there was a car stacked with the contents of a fucking toy store to unpack.

Sookie was in the living room when I found her looking really depressed about something. Apparently it was something to do with the song that was playing and some advertisements. I hoped it was nothing to do with me. Maybe I was supposed to do something else? The only thing I could think of was asking her to dance, which was a bit fucking awkward once we had two small girls dancing with us as well. But it was nice with the four of us. Once Amelia calmed down a bit and stopped trying to poke her sister.

When the kids were in bed I got Sookie to show me what these ads were, because I was really fucking curious about what could make her cry. She rolled her eyes and tried to talk me out of it, but I really wanted to know. So she found them and we watched the first one, with Sookie sitting on my lap with her head on my shoulder. It seemed to be about some guy telling his father he'd had a kid. I could kind of see why that might get to a woman who'd lost her parents before she had a baby. I snuck at look to see if she was crying but she just glared at me and said "What?"

Then we watched the second one, which had some guy picking his daughter up from school with ice creams. It took a bit longer to work this one out. And then it became clear around the time I heard Sookie sniff loudly and felt something wet hit my chest. Yeah, she had little girls who had no dad.

The ad finished playing. "They're so manipulative" Sookie said, sniffing again.

"Yep. Shameless." I agreed while rubbing her back and hoping she wouldn't progress into full-on sobbing. She sighed and started to sit up, looking resigned.

"It's OK." I said. "Um, I love them too…"

Sookie just went very still. And then she put her head on my chest and started crying again. Shit, I really had to stop making her cry.

"Yeah, don't cry. It's OK" I said, hoping that for once that would work.

"It's just the hormones. Fucking PMT" she said in reply, without stopping.

"So it's OK then? That I said that?"

Sookie looked at me with a blotchy, wet face. "Of course it's OK. It's just…not what I thought I might get in life. And I'm a little overwhelmed right now."

"Oh. Good overwhelmed or bad overwhelmed?"

"Good. I guess. Mostly just overwhelmed."

I wasn't sure what else to say so I kissed her. And then I kissed her some more. And then I picked her up, which caused Sookie to start worrying about me dropping her, but I got her to the bedroom and put her on the bed and just kept kissing her.

SPOV

I hate my hormones sometimes. Every month I turn into an emotional mess. I wasn't sure what was worse, those stupid ads setting me off again, or crying because Eric said he loved my kids too. God, I was a wuss. Where was Jason to punch me in the arm and tell me to harden up when I needed him?

Eric obviously decided that punching me wasn't going to snap me out of it and went for overwhelming me with passion instead. There was a lot of kissing. A lot of really good kissing. We ended up in the bedroom and I really liked where all this was going.

Eric was working on getting my bra off when he suddenly pulled back. "Did it come?" he asked.

"Oh…yeah. Just."

"Oh, so. There's no sex?" Eric asked, while dropping his head to tongue my nipple.

"Well…" I was torn between my natural reaction to say no and my reaction to what Eric was doing which was screaming yes.

"I'll be gentle" he said, looking up at me.

"Oh, I know. It's not that. It's just a bit…yuck."

"Yuck?"

"Yeah…don't you think?"

Eric shrugged. "I don't think so."

"You don't?"

"Well, if it's going to happen every month I think…I don't know. It's a shame not to celebrate the fact you love me anyway. Unless you're, um, sore or anything?"

"Well, so far I'm not really crampy. I guess I got the headache instead."

"So?"

"Um. OK. I'll just go and get a towel" I said, throwing my shirt back on.

"Do you have a towel for every occasion?" Eric asked as I left the bedroom.

"Pretty much."

True to his word Eric was very gentle, he was lovely. And I loved him. And he loved me. Which he told me repeatedly while we were making love.

Afterwards, when we were lying in bed, he turned to me and said "See I can tell you I love you now without you thinking it's some weird sex thing."

"Yeah, 'cos that would have got me into bed so much faster. You being any more stalker-ish than you already were."

He shrugged. "Some women want that."

"I'm not some women."

"I know. You're my woman."

"You're just lucky I'm too tired to lecture you on what's wrong with that statement."

"Yeah, maybe you could lecture me in the morning. I'm pretty tired too."

"Shut up and go to sleep then." I snuggled into his side. "Night."

"Night. I love you, Sookie."

"Yeah, love you too."

**OK, so probably lots and lots of you won't have heard the song or seen the ads. So this is the first ad -**

http:/www (dot) youtube (dot) com/watch?v=xAi4YIeHxJM

**This is the second ad -**

http:/www (dot) youtube (dot) com/watch?v=18hFlFT8ErE

**And if you want to just hear the song (which is kind of appropriate for them in this chapter) here's the video - **

http:/www (dot) youtube (dot) com/watch?v=dX7MktaEMh0

**Thanks for reading!**


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N Thanks to everyone who is reviewing this, I love, love, love getting them. I would promise teasers for those who review, but that requires more organisation than I can muster. I write on a just-in-time methodology I'm afraid!**

**A special mention to Northwoman who has just read all the way through Homestay and this story to date and left me lots of review love along the way!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

EPOV

As usual Amelia woke everyone else in the house up on Sunday morning. I might have told Sookie that I loved her too, but it didn't preclude me wondering whether it was possible to maybe lock in her room at night as her knee landed on my balls as she jumped on the bed.

"Fuck!" I yelled, which made Sookie sit up. Amelia frowned and said "Mum says don't say that."

"Yeah, well, sometimes it's necessary" I managed to say between gritted teeth. Fuck that was painful. I concentrated on just breathing through it.

"Amelia, can you say sorry to Eric please?" Sookie asked.

"Why?"

"For landing on him and hurting him."

"He's not bleedin'."

"No, but it still hurt him a lot."

Amelia looked at me like I was the biggest pussy ever. "Sorry" she said. "Can I have breakfast now? I'm hungry."

"Yeah, you head out we'll be there in a minute" Sookie said. Amelia stomped off and Sookie turned to me "You OK?"

"Yeah, I'll live. It fucking hurts though."

"I bet. Right, I better go and see what she's doing." Sookie kissed my forehead and left me to my pain. Fuck, I hoped Felicia was more co-ordinated when she learnt to jump.

I was heading out to the kitchen, and Sookie was coming back to check on me when we were both waylaid in the hallway by a yowling Bob. "Oh crap" said Sookie, "He's got something." She bent down to him, but he sidestepped her and dropped what looked like a small pile of green feathers at my feet, before heading off to the kitchen.

"Oh" said Sookie, looking somewhat put out. "I think that's your tribute then."

"What? I don't want a…" I looked down at what it was "…dead bird."

"It's a waxeye. Poor little thing." With that Sookie turned and walked off, still looking annoyed. I wasn't convinced that she was only annoyed with Bob, for some reason she was annoyed with me too. I picked up the tiny limp corpse and took it into the kitchen so I could put it in the garbage. Really, if Sookie wanted it she could have it.

"You're a bad cat, Bob" I said half-heartedly to Bob who was now eating his breakfast. He didn't even look up.

"He's not bad, he's just a cat" Sookie said. "Anyway, you got the present so you're probably supposed to say thank-you or something."

"Um, I'm not going to thank him for a dead bird. I don't think the bird would thank him either."

Sookie shrugged and muttered something while putting Amelia's breakfast dishes in the dishwasher. "What?" I asked.

"Nothing." She looked up at me and then said, begrudgingly, "I was just saying that I guess I know where I come now."

"What do you mean?"

"Well if you're getting the presents then I'm not Bob's person anymore, he doesn't report to me." OK, this was a really weird conversation.

"I don't really want him reporting to me with dead things. Or any live things for that matter." The last bit I directed towards Bob who didn't look up from his bowl.

"I don't know if you have a choice, I think you're now head of the household or something" Sookie grumbled, while still banging dishes.

"Seriously? Because the cat gave me the dead bird I'm head of the household?"

"Well, in his mind it works that way."

"And you care what goes on in Bob's tiny feline brain? Sookie he probably hasn't really thought it through like that."

She shrugged. "It just doesn't seem right is all" she muttered.

This was just getting fucking weirder by the minute. "Sookie" I said, putting my hands on her shoulders so she'd look at me. "I love you so much that you can have all of Bob's tributes, dead and alive, from here on in. OK?"

She sighed. "Fine, but you tell Bob that, then. He's your vassal or whatever."

"Yeah…I'll, um, do that. When I next see him…" Thank fuck he'd disappeared. I was really not getting into a conversation with a cat.

"Well, at least it means he accepts you now anyway" Sookie said, a bit brighter. I guess she'd decided to put a positive spin on it.

"Yeah…think I'm going to make coffee now." Hopefully that would be the end of that.

Sookie cheered up a bit over breakfast and then went off to have a shower, leaving me to the mercy of Amelia and her new horde of toys courtesy of the party the night before. There were a lot of fiddly things that had to be taken out of boxes. And some moon-hopper thing that I was going to have to ask Sookie if we had a pump for.

By the time I'd had my shower Sookie was busy cleaning. She was on her hands and knees, poking the vacuum cleaner under the Christmas tree trying to collect up all the dropped needles. I stopped to enjoy watching her for a bit, as she was wearing some really tight stretchy shorts which made her ass look fantastic.

Without turning around she asked "Are you going to stand there and perv at me or actually help?"

"Help."

"Good. Your arms are longer than mine, you can take over." With that she backed out of her spot and handed the vacuum to me.

"You can perv at me, if you want" I said, wiggling my butt as I took her place.

"Yeah, OK. If you like" and she stood there, with her head cocked to one side.

I carried on with trying to get all the needles that were stuck in the corner while Sookie just kept standing there. After a while she said "You know, you might be onto something Eric. It's not too bad this whole staring at bums thing."

"Yeah, I like it" I said, as I backed out from under the tree. "But I really only want to stare at yours, not my own so much."

"That's a shame, you've got a nice bum."

"Thanks." I stood up and kissed her.

"No problem. And thank you for getting the needles. While you've got the vacuum out you can finish off the living room. I'm off to clean the bathrooms. If you're really quick you might be finished in time to catch me while I'm still on my hands and knees cleaning the shower."

"I'm that predictable, huh?"

"I would be lonely if you didn't come and stare at me."

SPOV

Sunday morning we did housework which was boring, although marginally improved my staring at Eric's bum for a bit while he was under the Christmas tree. Even Amelia decided she didn't want to help because she had new toys to play with.

After lunch though she was bored so we made cupcakes, which she insisted in coating in a thick layer of 100's and 1000's over the icing. Eric gamely ate several even though the crunch of him biting through the sprinkles made me wince.

When we had enough shade coming from the house I dragged the paddling pool out again and filled it with water, although Eric was there to help carry the buckets this time.

All in all it was a very pleasant day. Despite the fact I was crampy and annoyed with everyone, including poor Eric for getting Bob's dead bird. Even I realised I sounded a bit over the top, but I couldn't help it. I was just so used to getting all of Bob's presents. He was my cat, and he was supposed to give this stuff, however disgusting it might be, to me. There were just some things I wasn't prepared to hand over to Eric.

And really, if I left Eric to deal with the next live rat we'd all have to move out of the house to wait for an exterminator to come.

So the day finished as normal, we ate dinner, put the kids to bed, had a small disagreement in the driveway over whether I was perfectly capable of dragging the recycling bin up to the curb. It was like a lot of other days. Except that I now knew Eric loved me. And I felt like I wasn't holding my breath anymore waiting for him to disappear on me.

EPOV

Sookie made me set an alarm for Monday morning so I would be up in time to get to Calvin's. Fuck, this hadn't even seemed like a really good idea at the time, now it just seemed like the worst idea in the world.

I wasn't going to tell Sookie that, though. She was positively gleeful about the thing, waiting for me to back out or something. No way was I giving her that satisfaction.

It turned out I didn't really need the alarm at all because I had Sookie who poked me in the chest several times and announced that it was 5.20am and I'd better get moving.

As I sat up in bed Sookie said "Wow. I didn't even know you could wake up this early. Unless there was sex on offer. Otherwise you're always asleep."

"Yeah. That seems like a pretty sensible decision on my part really."

"Yep, well. Have fun. I'm going back to sleep until Amelia or Felicia need me." With that, she rolled over and closed her eyes.

I went to find the clothes I'd put out the night before and my sneakers. I hoped like fuck Calvin wasn't going to expect too much of me.

As predicted, it wasn't pleasant. Although I guess it could have been worse. I probably needed the exercise. I'd been to the gym, what, once in all the time I'd been here? And I wasn't sure that running round after Amelia was really working off all the food Sookie kept giving me. And those cupcakes the day before were about 100 per cent sugar. But Amelia was so pleased with them I kind of felt compelled to eat them. And after a while they weren't _that_ bad.

I was really glad though when the run was over and we got back to Calvin's and I could go home. And prepare myself to do it all again in two days' time.

When I got back home everyone was up. Amelia came over to greet me. "You're all sweaty" she announced.

"Uh, yeah."

"I know what makes you sweaty. It's the hotness." With that she wandered off again. I looked over at Sookie who was laughing hysterically.

"Um, I'll just go and shower then…" I said. Sookie looked up, "Yeah, you take your hot self off there Eric."

When I came out of the bathroom Sookie was standing around impatiently holding her handbag. "Right, I'm off to Pak N Save for the last big shop before Christmas, you're holding the fort. Bye!" With that she was off out the door.

What seemed like hours later she was back with the trunk of her car packed with groceries and full of stories of how busy it had been and how everyone else was an idiot in charge of a shopping trolley.

"I have just one thing to say to you Sookie" I said "On-line shopping."

"Yeah, yeah. I've heard it before." We had finished carrying everything in now and Sookie was putting it all away. "Oh, I have something to say to you though."

"What?"

"I ran into Maisie's mum, you know, Amelia's friend from pre-school. You met Becs and her husband at the pre-school Christmas party."

"Um, yeah."

"And she was asking me for details. About the wedding."

"What? Calvin and Judith's wedding?" Calvin had been complaining that it was all getting a bit out of hand and with only two months to go money was just walking out the door.

"No. Our wedding. The one we're supposedly having." Oh. Fuck. I was torn between trying to play dumb and saying they must be fucking nuts, or owning up that I fucked up. Again. I decided to go for casual, like it was no big deal.

"Um, yeah. They must have got the wrong idea from me saying we weren't technically married. I just struggle with the whole partner thing."

Sookie looked at me like she thought there might be more to it. "Well please try a bit harder not to give people the wrong impression, it's really embarrassing when I have no clue what they're talking about. Just think about my feelings for once."

"Fuck Sookie! What about my feelings? How do you think I feel when you're so embarrassed by the thought of marrying me?"

"Oh Eric! You know that's not it. I just hate hearing these stories about us when they're not true."

"Well it is true. Kind of."

"How? How is it true?"

"Well I would. Marry you. Someday. If you wanted." Fuck, I thought, I probably shouldn't have let that slip out.

"Yeah, well. We'll see." She turned back to unpacking the bags. I wasn't sure that was the best response, it sounded an awful lot like the 'we'll see' that Amelia got when she was asking about getting a marshmallow. But it seemed to be the only response I was going to get for now, so I started trying to find a space for the three packets of cat biscuits Sookie had bought. Shit, that would last about three minutes with Bob around. Also, they looked a lot fancier than the biscuits he normally had. Sookie, I realised, was trying to buy Bob's affections back.

I glanced over to where she was moving stuff around in the fridge, looking like she had a dark cloud hanging over her. Yeah, I wasn't going to tell her I was onto her right at that moment.

I left her alone until the cloud looked like it had mostly gone, which meant I got stuck with Amelia and her new horde of stuff. Which included some really fucking tiny dolls called Polly. She kept asking me to dress them and there was no way I could make clothes that small work, so she just got mad at me too. I was doing nothing right. Even Felicia yelled at me when I wouldn't let her roll over when I was trying to change her diaper.

By lunchtime Sookie was at least talking to me again and after Felicia's nap she suggested we all go for a walk to the village to 'get out of the house'. Amelia immediately perked up as she realised ice cream might be on offer and ran off to get her shoes. Sookie looked at me and said "Look, sorry about earlier. But really, just stop it, OK?"

"Yep."

"Well go and get your shoes on and let's go to the gelato shop. And maybe the butcher's while we're there. Oh, and I want to go to the bookshop to look for something for Tara's birthday present."

"How much shopping are we doing?"

"We're not doing any _shopping_. We're going for a walk and an ice cream. And maybe a couple of errands."

"What's the difference?"

"It would take too long to explain, get your shoes."

So we set off up the hill to the Village, Sookie pushing Felicia's stroller and stopping every so often to retrieve thrown toys or hats, and me either dawdling behind because I was going at Amelia's pace, or in front with her on my shoulders because she wanted to be 'the leader'.

It was nice out, but the walk got us all a bit sticky. As soon as we got near the shops Amelia wanted an ice cream but of course Sookie had some errands to do first. We went into the bookshop which was tiny and crammed with books. And a really large Siamese cat that Sookie and Amelia stopped to talk to. Fuck, they were odd sometimes. I looked at Felicia, who I was carrying because we'd had to leave the stroller outside on the pavement, and wondered if we could just pretend we weren't with them.

Sookie took forever trying to find something for Tara, so I browsed as well. Amelia was down the back with the kid's books loudly pretending to read to herself and neither Sookie nor I wanted to go and see how much mess she was creating. In the end I bought myself two books just to kill the time.

"Oh, did you get something for yourself?" Sookie asked, when we were finally leaving.

"Yeah. Well I've nearly finished that thing on the Civil War. Was that Bill's?"

"God no. He stuck mainly to Sci-fi and fantasy. The one you're reading was my dad's. I don't know why I kept it, I guess because I gave it to him for Father's Day before he died. He was the non-fiction reader, like you are." She went back to strapping Felicia in the stroller again.

Next Sookie 'ran into' a gift shop to get something else 'little' for Tara while I stayed outside with the two kids and Amelia stared longingly at the candy shop that was next to it and begged to be allowed to go in. It was only the promise of an ice cream soon that stopped her just going in anyway.

That mission accomplished we finally got to the gelato shop, which was at the end of the shops next to the bank. I happened to glance up and saw a whole bunch of people in suits going in. Poor fuckers, I thought, wearing suits in this heat. Some of them looked familiar though.

"Eric!" Peter shouted at me.

"Oh, hi Peter" I said, as he came over and shook my hand.

"Fancy seeing you here? Are you local?" he looked over at Sookie and the kids.

"Um, yeah. We are. You remember Sookie?" They shook hands and exchanged greetings.

"So Eric" he continued "Funny to run into you here. You were quite the hit at the Business Banking function we had and Geoff, the manager of the Mt Eden branch, is looking at doing something similar for his business customers in the New Year. Do you want to come in and meet him? We're just here to raise the profile of the Finance team and talk about the results for the year to date, but I'm sure Geoff wouldn't mind sparing five minutes to meet you. Maybe you could help him out with his customers?"

I looked at Sookie, who made a sort of go-on motion with her hands as Amelia was shout-whispering "I want an ice-cream!" at her. So I followed Geoff into the branch while Sookie took the kids in to get gelato.

Luckily it wasn't a very long meeting, although I got the feeling that left to his own devices that Geoff guy could out-talk Amelia. Peter kept him on-track though. It was also lucky that Peter's presence stopped Sophie-Anne doing anything stupid, other than glare at me. I thought I'd glimpsed her before I saw Peter, and I was right.

So after about 15 minutes I was in the gelato shop, where Amelia was still making her way through what was now a melted puddle of chocolate gelato, having agreed to 'help Geoff out', which I guess meant sit through another boring lecture on the New Zealand economy. Wearing a suit.

Sookie handed me the slightly melted gelato she'd bought me and asked what had happened, so I gave her a brief overview, missing out the bit about the glaring she-devil that was present.

"So, they want you to what? Consult with their customers or something?" she asked.

I shrugged "Yeah, possibly. I guess it's worth looking into."

"Yeah, I guess." Sookie bent down to retrieve Felicia's hat again. Felicia looked at me and said "Bub". I gave her some of the gelato off my spoon, just as Sookie sat back up again.

"Bub bub bub bub" Felicia said happily, clapping and opening and closing her mouth for more.

"Ice cream?" Sookie asked. Oh yeah, she'd missed that bit when she'd been sick.

"Yeah, well. It's got milk in it" I said, giving Felicia some more. Sookie sighed and said "It's probably fine. Although of course now she thinks she's got you wrapped round her little finger."

"Who's finger Mummy?" said a very sticky Amelia, who'd now finished.

Once Felicia and I had finished and Amelia had been cleaned down as best we could, Sookie went a few doors down to the butcher's shop. Which was jam-packed this close to Christmas.

"Right, I might get some steak for dinner, that sound all right?" Sookie asked, but she looked like she didn't really want an answer so I just nodded. She went to join the queue inside and I waited outside with the kids, again.

Felicia kept throwing her hat. The more I retrieved it, the more she giggled and I could soon see the game was to see how far she make me go to get it. The wind caught it and it started down the pavement and when I got back to the stroller Amelia was out of sight. Fuck.

"Amelia!" I yelled, but then I spotted her. And Sophie-Anne, who was bending down to talk to her. I pushed Felicia over to them in time to hear Amelia say "But Mummy said we're keeping him!", with the distinct sound of a sob in her voice. Fuck, they were either talking about me or Bob and I'm pretty sure Sophie-Anne didn't care about the cat.

I could see the tears starting to fall from Amelia's eyes and I reached over and picked her up. "What the _fuck_, Sophie-Anne?" I hissed, over Amelia's head.

Sophie-Anne shrugged and said "I was just talking to her and she got upset. Children. They're so emotional."

I opened my mouth to say something else when I heard Sookie's voice next to me say "What the hell is going on here?"

SPOV

We'd had a nice trip to the Village and then fucking Sophie-Anne appeared and made Amelia cry. As soon as I saw them all standing there when I got out of the butcher's I knew that's what had happened. And I saw red.

"What the hell is going on here?" I asked.

"Eric lost the child and I found her upset and crying" Sophie-Anne said casually.

"I fucking did not and you know it!" Eric yelled. Yeah, I thought, he's getting upset now. "You were telling her I was going to leave her. Fuck you are a prize bitch Sophie-Anne."

OK, him yelling wasn't going to help. Not to mention he was still cradling Amelia with the arm that wasn't holding the push-chair and she was hearing all of this too. "Sophie-Anne" I said, in as calm a voice as I could muster. "Can I just have a very quick word?"

She looked at me like I was filth, but sort of nodded imperiously and I steered us off to the corner of the building where there was an alley that led off the main street.

I smiled at Sophie-Anne who just said "Yes? What do you want to say Sookie?"

"I just want to say that you are the biggest fucking slag I have ever come across, and if you ever come near any of my family again I will make sure that everyone at the bank knows exactly what sort of person you are. Because unlike poor Andre, you have nothing over me. So get over your fucking pathetic schoolgirl crush on Eric and leave us alone."

Sophie-Anne sniffed. "Your family? Oh Sookie, don't be such a dumb bitch. What do you think is going to happen? That you'll get married and live happily ever after? It won't happen."

"Oh fuck off Sophie-Anne, of course it will happen. You know absolutely nothing about me, or Eric, or any of us. Hell, you couldn't even tell that Amelia wanted to be your friend, and you made a little girl cry because Eric didn't like you. Shit, if that's not pathetic then nothing is. Grow up and stop playing games. You're not 15 anymore, so fucking act like a woman and not a teenage girl."

With that I turned around, and just about bumped into Eric, who'd come up to us. "Um" he said "Amelia just wants to say something to Sophie-Anne."

Amelia had stopped crying, although her face was a bit red and very tear-stained. She looked Sophie-Anne in the eye and then said loudly "You are not a very nice lady and you are NOT my friend!", then she looked at Eric who just nodded his approval at her.

Sophie-Anne didn't say anything else, but just turned and walked off in the direction of the bank. I looked at Eric, who was grinning at me.

"What? Are you all happy because I told Sophie-Anne where to go?"

I took Felicia's pushchair from him and we started walking back in the direction of home, Eric still carrying Amelia. "No" he said "I'm all happy because apparently, and I'm quoting you here, we're getting married."

Oh shit. I was just as bad as he was. "It was the heat of the moment" I mumbled. "I was just trying to burst her bubble."

Eric giggled, which made Amelia laugh too, although she was a bit clueless as to what was going on.

"Don't gloat Eric!" I chastised, while picking up Felicia's hat again. I really needed to get her one with a strap.

"What's gloat?" asked Amelia.

"Being happy at someone else's expense" I answered.

"So what's expensive then? The ice cream?" Amelia was totally lost.

"Yeah, it was a very expensive trip out for Mummy. It's cost me very dearly" I said, cursing Sophie-Anne who was the cause of all of this.

"Oh, Sookie. You have no idea!" Eric said gleefully. I was seriously regretting buying him ice cream and steak now. He patently didn't deserve it. He fell into step beside me and put the arm that wasn't carrying Amelia around my shoulders. "I guess it's a good thing you love me" he said.

"Yeah, lucky for you I guess."

"Because a marriage without love would just be sad."

"Eric, if you don't shut up now I will hurt you in your sleep!" I tried to look stern, but I'd lost it. I was giggling too now. "It's not funny!" I said, laughing still.

"Stamp your foot again, because you really look like Amelia when you do that."

"Shut up!"

"Great comeback."

"I mean it."

"I have no doubt you mean everything you say, including all the things you said to Sophie-Anne…"

"You're impossible!"

Thankfully Amelia broke in then, bored by the two of us carrying on. "Can I watch a movie tonight?"

"Yeah, let's do that" I said. "Let's just pretend today never happened."

Eric thankfully decided enough was enough and shut up for the rest of the walk home, but he kept nudging me and smiling at me. I was never going to live this down. Bloody Sophie-Anne.

**Thanks for reading!**


	26. Chapter 26

**Thanks for all the amazing reviews for the last chapter! I posted it before going to bed and got to wake up to them all which was a lot of fun! I'm glad everyone liked Sookie's confrontation with Sophie-Anne.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine.**

EPOV

Sookie's idea for a walk had turned up all sorts of surprises. Running into Sophie-Anne was at the nastier end of it, but Sookie had no fucking qualms about standing up to her. And she also told Sophie-Anne we were getting married. Not in so many words of course, but she was pretty clear in what she said.

And then she spent the rest of the afternoon trying to backtrack, which was totally fucking hilarious. All the shit she'd been giving me about sticking to the truth and protecting her feelings and then she's no different at all. I may have teased her a tiny bit. She's really fucking cute when she stamps her foot.

By the time we'd walked home Felicia and Amelia were a bit bored, Felicia had even stopped throwing her hat, thank fuck. Amelia went off to play and Sookie put Felicia down in the family room so she could pull the toy box over on herself and have a poke around. I followed Sookie into the kitchen.

She put the package from the butcher's shop in the fridge then whirled around to look at me. "Stop grinning Eric! Honestly, you look like an idiot!"

"I can't help it that I'm happy." I put my arms around her and she relaxed against my chest.

"Well it's nice that you're happy, but just don't count your chickens before they're hatched." Shit, did that mean she didn't want to get married.

"So" I said, looking down at her, "can we get married then?"

Sookie sighed. "Possibly." Well, I'd heard enough conversations with Amelia to know that 'possibly' was a step up from the 'we'll see' I'd got from her earlier in the day. So I guess that was progress. Now all I had to do was nudge her towards a 'maybe' and I was almost there.

Just at that minute we heard a familiar yowl and broke apart. Bob was carrying something again. Please take it to Sookie I thought, trying to move so I was standing behind her.

But no, the fucker dropped it by my feet, and it ran under the fridge. I looked at Sookie who looked pissed. Well, that had probably sent me back to 'we'll see' again.

"Well I think that's your skink there, Eric" Sookie said before leaving the kitchen. Fuck.

I started to pull the fridge out from the wall. "Something seems really wrong here, Bob" I said to the cat, who was now eating cat biscuits and ignoring me. "You're over there with fucking expensive cat food, and I'm over here…" I paused to peer into the gap I'd made "…chasing a fucking lizard around while Sookie is pissed at me because of it. You are not my favourite…" I reached into the gap and tried in vain to see if I could feel where the skink had gone "…cat about now." Fuck. I wasn't having any luck getting the skink.

Amelia came into the kitchen and stood watching me for a minute. "What happened?" she asked.

"Bob brought a skink in" I said, trying in vain to work out where it was.

"Oh. I'm hungry."

"Well, wait for dinner."

"But I'm hungry _now_!"

"Well find some raisins or something. The pantry door is open. I'm a little busy here!" I still couldn't quite see where it was, so I gave the refrigerator another shove.

Amelia sighed exaggeratedly and went to the pantry, then came back and just kept watching me. "Where's the skink?" she asked.

"I don't know! Under here somewhere."

"Why isn't Mum catching it? She gets the skinks."

"Because apparently this is my skink." I went to get the flashlight out of the pantry and tried crouching down and shining it behind the refrigerator.

"Oh. Can I have a skink too?"

"No, Amelia. You cannot have a skink. No one is having a skink; the skink is going back outside." I stood up again. "As soon as I can find the fucker" I muttered.

Just then the skink decided to make a break for it and dashed across the kitchen floor to the first bit of shelter it could find, which was Bob, who was sitting there washing his paws and ignoring me. He ignored the skink too, as it tried to hide under his tail. I guess no one was going to help me.

I started to edge towards Bob in the hope of grabbing the skink before he scared it off, but I hadn't counted on Amelia shouting "Bob! You've got the skink!" at him, which of course made him leave in a hurry in case any of Amelia's enthusiastic hugs were forthcoming.

The skink, having realised that it's fantastic hiding place had disappeared, made another dash for cover but this time I got him before he made it under the dishwasher. "Did you get it?" Amelia asked, while still munching raisins.

"Yep. I'm going to put him outside now."

So I walked outside, with Amelia trotting after me, and we put him in the garden where he darted off. Fuck that was a lot of hassle for something that small.

"Do you think he'll get home?" Amelia asked me.

"Uh, probably."

"Do you know where he lives?"

"Not really."

"So how do you know he'll get home?"

"He just will. I'm pretty sure he can find home. Most things can."

"But he might be lost!"

"Well maybe he'll get a new home then. Somewhere better. Perhaps a bigger rock that will protect him better from Bob." We started to walk back towards the house.

"You got a new home. Did you forget where your old one was?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"This is better." That didn't seem to be a question.

"Yeah, this is better."

"What's for dinner?"

"Steak."

"I don't like steak!"

"Yes you do."

"Do I?"

"Yes."

"Does Felicia like steak?"

"She's too young for steak."

"I'm not. I'm a big girl." By now we were back in the kitchen and Amelia watched me push the fridge back into place and then take the steak out. I started trying to make a marinade for it and Amelia disappeared, re-appearing a minute later with her stool.

"I'll watch" she said.

"Why not. Just don't tell your mother."

"Why?"

"Uh, because she normally tries to watch what I do, when I'm not looking."

"Oh. Is it a secret?"

"Yeah. Kind of."

"Why?"

"It just is. Have you decided what movie we're watching?" I prayed for something other than Tinkerbell. I had Sookie; I didn't need to see any other women stomping around quite frankly.

"Um…Monster's Inc. I'll go get it." With that she dashed off.

"No, Amelia. We don't…need it now." I gave up, she was gone.

Just then Sookie appeared again. "Did you get the skink?" she asked.

"Yep, eventually. After it tried to hide under Bob, which seems a really dumb fucking move if you ask me."

"I don't think skinks are noted for their brains. Half the ones Bob brings in have scars from the last time he caught them. You think they'd learn. Ah! Felicia, no!" She looked over to where Felicia was sitting unpacking a basket of carefully folded laundry. Felicia looked over and said "Mum!" happily. "Mum mum mum mum mum mum" she continued while waving a pair of Sookie's panties above her head.

"Oh" said Sookie. "Well that's a new sound. Or possibly an attempt to get herself out of trouble."

"I think she's talking to you" I said.

"Yeah, maybe. Or it's just a new noise. It's an easy noise to make." She went over to take the laundry back off Felicia who yelled "Mum!" at her again as she arrived.

Amelia went over to them. "What's Felicia doing?"

"Unfolding the washing and saying mum" Sookie said, trying to get Felicia to part with her treasures. Yeah, she couldn't keep a fucking hat on her head but she wasn't letting go of my sock apparently.

"I can do that!" Amelia announced.

"Yes you can. And you frequently do. Come on Felicia let go of the sock!"

"Mum!"

"Yeah" said Amelia, never missing an opportunity to tell her sister what to do. "Let go of the sock."

Felicia wasn't having any of it and crawled, sock still in hand, into the kitchen to where I was standing. "Mum mum mum mum" she said happily. "Bub." She sat behind me and put the sock in her mouth. Well that was going back in the laundry hamper now.

The sock in her mouth muffled her a bit and turned her noises into a kind of "mm mm mm mm mm" sound.

"Sock please Felicia!" Sookie said, holding out her hand. "Ta."

Felicia took the now wet sock out of her mouth and poked it against my leg. Yeah, that was disgusting now. "Da!" she said happily. "Da da da da da bub!"

I bent down to take the sock off her. It was nastier than the skink. "Da!" she chanted.

"Yeah, thanks" I said, handing the sock to Sookie.

"Is Felicia saying dad now?" asked Amelia.

"No...no. I don't think so. I think it's ta" said Sookie.

"Yeah, definitely ta" I agreed.

"Oh, sounds like dad" Amelia said. "Felicia doesn't have a dad. Maybe she wants one?"

"Maybe" Sookie agreed. I just kept quiet in case any of this was going to blow up in my face. Felicia poked me again and said "Ma!"

"She does. She told me." Amelia pronounced, then, obviously deciding the case was closed she said "I got the movie!"

"OK, well put it in the bedroom for later" Sookie said and Amelia ran off. Felicia held out her arms for Sookie and said "Mum mum mum mum!" Sookie picked her up and peered at what I was doing.

"I'll go and get the barbecue started up in a minute" I said.

"Yeah" Sookie agreed, somewhat dreamily, as if she was thinking of something else. She started to walk off with Felicia in her arms. "Maybe" she said.

"Maybe what?" I asked, having lost what was going on.

"Maybe we could get married" she said as she disappeared off with the basket of laundry, leaving Felicia sitting on the floor in its place. "Mum!" she wailed before crawling after Sookie.

Well that was definitely fucking progress. I'd got as far as maybe and the day wasn't over yet. I wasn't going to push my luck any further though and just got on with making dinner.

It was such a nice night that we ate outside, where I ignored the fact that Sookie was accidentally dropping chunks of steak near the spot where Bob was stationed. He was fucking doing alright out of all of this.

We watched Monster's Inc with a running commentary from Amelia who asked questions about everything that happened, then repeated it back to Felicia who would make a random shout of 'Mum!' or 'Bub!' or 'Da!'.

After it was over and Amelia had gone to bed, reluctantly, and Felicia had finally stopped singing to herself in her crib, Sookie disappeared into the bathroom and emerged wearing the dreaded big t-shirt. The one that signified there was no sex. Oh well.

She sat on the bed and we watched TV for a while in silence. Eventually she turned to me and said "Thank you for earlier. I didn't say it, but thanks for helping Amelia stand up to Sophie-Anne. It would have been horrible if she'd been crushed by that awful cow."

"Oh, yeah. No problem. I think it was the fact she saw you telling her off that made her want to join in."

"Yeah. I've never wanted to kill someone so much in my entire life as I did today." She sighed. "Motherhood. It makes you cry at stupid ads and turns you into a homicidal maniac when faced with rabid Australian bitches."

I laughed. "I think it makes you lovely…" I kissed her "…and beautiful, and kind, and sensitive. It suits you."

She snorted. "You're just saying that because I'm stuck with it now."

"No, I'm saying it because it's true. I don't think everyone is cut out to have kids. My mother fucking wasn't. But you are."

"Well, maybe" she conceded finally. "But I think you are too."

"Yeah, I like it. I never thought I would. But it's actually kind of great being around them."

Sookie leaned over and kissed me. "Yeah" she said, starting to undo my shorts "You'll be a great dad." It took me a second to register what she'd said, because I was far more interested in what her hand was currently doing with my cock. And by the time I had figured out what I'd heard, her mouth was doing some really interesting things and I completely lost my train of thought, otherwise I might have asked her what she meant and who's dad I was supposed to be.

All I could think was that fuck, if barbecuing steak really does get me a blow-job I hope like hell that we can cook outside all fucking winter in this country.

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	27. Chapter 27

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**Disclaimer: Not mine**

SPOV

It was kind of crowded when I woke up the next morning. I had Eric pinning my torso, Bob clinging to my feet and Amelia poking my arm and announcing it was up time. As soon as Felicia could start getting herself up in the morning I wanted a bigger bed.

"I can't get up" I whispered to Amelia. "I'm kind of stuck here." I nodded in Eric's direction. He was doing well to sleep through this. Amelia frowned at me like I was an idiot, and then said really loudly "Eric! Let Mummy get up!"

"Huh?" he mumbled, opening his eyes and blinking at me, like it was my fault.

"It. Is. Up. Time." Amelia said again.

"No, I don't think so" Eric said and he closed his eyes again, which just made Amelia sigh loudly and look at me pointedly.

"Come on" I said, nudging him with my leg, which made Bob move anyway. "There's no escaping it."

"Urgh" Eric moaned, rolling over. "It's too early."

"Not as early as you'll be getting up tomorrow for your run!" I said gleefully, getting out of bed.

"Don't remind me!" Eric complained as I left the room with Amelia.

We got Amelia off to pre-school OK and Eric unpacked his laptop and sat at the table. Only things didn't seem to be going so well judging by the amount of swearing and muttering that was going on. "Have you tried turning it off and on?" I suggested from where I was wiping down the kitchen.

"Yes" Eric said in a very strained voice.

I went over to have a look. "Um, have you tried this?"

"Yes."

I sat in his lap and clicked a few things. "Jeez, Eric. Have you cleaned out your temp directories recently?" I asked.

"Sookie, who died and put you in charge of the computers around here?" Eric asked, not sounding particularly amused.

"Duh! The person who used to be in charge of them!" I swivelled round to look at Eric and he was just frowning. "Bill" I said, and he looked a bit sheepish.

"Oh. Sorry" he said.

"No. It's fine. Don't worry. Didn't I tell you he was in IT?"

"No."

"Oh. Thought you would have figured it out from the amount of computer crap we moved out of the study."

"Yeah, guess I wasn't paying attention. So what did he do?"

"Um, his last proper job he was an Infrastructure Architect."

"Is that a real job?"

I shrugged. "There were business cards. Must have been."

I turned back to the laptop and tried a few other things. "Nope" I said "I've got nothing."

Eric reached around me and tried a few things himself. It was going, but it wasn't quite right. "I shouldn't really worry" he grumbled. "It's not mine and it has to go back at some stage. I'll probably have to take it back."

"Oh" I said. I didn't really want to think about Eric going back to the States. The worry about whether he'd actually come back once he got there would be too great.

Eric put his arms around me. "I should probably look at getting one for myself."

"Yeah, well there'll be a lot of sales next week after Christmas" I said. "You'll probably get a bargain then."

I turned around again and looked at his face. "But you've had the idea now and you want to go today because you're not good with waiting?" I asked.

Eric looked sideways and half-nodded.

"Sales suck?" I asked putting my head on his shoulder.

"Yep. I can't see the point."

"Fine" I said, standing up "Let's go to JB Hi-fi then."

Eric frowned. "I don't know if that sounds like the best place."

"Well, for starters, it's the only place I can think of that's not actually inside a mall and therefore off limits this week. As it is it will be busy. But anyway, you'll like it there. Trust me."

It took us a while to get a car park and I couldn't interest Eric in a game of car-cricket with me while we were waiting. It had kept Jason and I amused on many a long car journey. Felicia chanted "Bub. Ma ma ma ma mum. Da" from the back seat and attempted to chew her toes once she'd thrown all the toys she had away. She was getting really good at throwing.

We finally got inside and yes, Eric liked the shop a whole lot. It had every gadget going. I left him to it and wandered down to the TV section to see if they were showing something animated that might amuse Felicia for a bit. She just sat in the stroller and yelled at people. I got approached by several sales assistants, who were overly hopeful of selling me in a TV for Christmas, and not particularly interested in my suggestion to install seating and perhaps a playpen as a shop where you could leave kids and blokes for hours on end would be a godsend.

Felicia was getting restless and starting to try to climb out of the pushchair by this time so I wandered back over to find Eric who was deep in conversation with a sales assistant and looked like he might be there a while. I went over to him and said "We're just going to the shoe shop next door."

"Uh-huh. OK" Eric said glancing at us briefly.

And that was how I ended up in No. 1 Shoe Warehouse buying Felicia jandals that she patently didn't need because she can't walk. But they looked cute.

I wandered slowly back into JB Hi-fi. The only other stores around were The Warehouse and a toy store which would be far too busy to go into. It looked as though Eric was just about finished though as he was moving towards the checkout.

When he was done and had everything packed up he came over to us. "Da!" Felicia shouted waving her feet. Eric looked and frowned, "Flip-flops?" he asked.

"Jandals!" I replied.

"Yeah. They're very nice."

"So are you all sorted?" I asked.

"Yep. Let's go home. It's fucking busy around here."

I rolled my eyes. "What did you expect Eric?"

He didn't say anything but just took Felicia's pushchair and started walking back to the car.

EPOV

I spent the afternoon getting the new laptop set up, although after this morning I wasn't completely convinced I shouldn't be getting Sookie to do this for me. I felt a total shit when I made that remark about someone dying, but it hadn't occurred to me that Bill had worked for a living. I didn't really think much about Bill and I hadn't got further than thinking of him as a fucked up loser really. I wasn't particularly interested in him.

After getting Amelia from pre-school Sookie came and hovered near me for a bit to see what I was doing. I looked up from the screen.

"How's it going?" she asked.

"Fine." She looked like she wanted to say something else. "What?" I asked.

She sat down on a chair. "I'm a bit worried about Amelia. She's in her room with her Barbies and the one you say looks like me just told the one that used to be Sophie-Anne that she was a bitch. How much did she hear yesterday?"

I shrugged. "A bit. She'll get over it though."

"Do you think? I'm worried I've stuffed her up for life."

I snorted. "Trust me, Sookie. It takes a lot more than that to stuff someone up for life. Even I'm not completely stuffed up."

She looked thoughtful. "I guess. I just worry that she shouldn't see things like that at her age."

"What? Her mother standing up to a bully?"

"Well I was thinking more the language, and being dragged into adult stuff by that…" she looked over her shoulder, presumably for Amelia "…fucking bitch."

"She'll hear worse at school. She's fine. She just knows that you don't take shit from anyone." I kissed her forehead.

"Yeah. I hope so. I hope she doesn't decide to use her new words on the kids at pre-school." She looked at me and smiled. "If she does I'm blaming you for it!"

"Thanks very much!"

She patted my knee. "So do you want to go and get the barbecue set up?"

"What for?"

"I got butterflied lamb loins at the butcher's yesterday. I thought you could have a go at cooking those."

"Oh, yeah. No problem." Well I knew what steak got me, what were the rules for lamb I wondered?

Later on, after the kids were in bed I found out. I was in the living room, watching TV, when Sookie came in.

"So, um, do you want a shower?" she asked.

"Oh. Yeah, that sounds good."

I followed her into the bathroom and we started getting undressed. "Now there's no sex still" Sookie said, as I grabbed her and pulled her to me. "Uh-huh" I said.

"But, um, we could do that thing again?" she asked, looking embarrassed.

"What thing?" I waited for Sookie to get into the shower, and then followed her in carefully, trying to avoid the shelves for once.

"You know. The thing we did last month, where you sort of picked me up…" she trailed off and bit her lip.

"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea" I said, bending to kiss her.

"Well _I_ thought so. But Eric?"

"Yeah?" I was kind of busy at this point.

"Remember I'm not light, so don't drop me. And don't hurt yourself."

"Shut up Sookie." And then for a bit she did. Well the words stopped, but the moaning was pretty fucking awesome.

I got up far too fucking early again the next morning. This time Sookie didn't even stir until the alarm went and then she looked pissed at me because I hadn't turned it off quickly enough. "Have fun" she muttered, before making herself comfortable again. Fuck, I wanted to be going back to sleep about now.

I went into the kitchen to get some water, to find Bob waiting for me beside his bowl. Yeah, even I wasn't getting gifts now that he gourmet food on tap. I toyed with the idea of not giving him breakfast, but realised I'd only be punished for it later. The threat of another rat was a fucking good deterrent I had to admit.

I would like to say the run went better than Monday's, but I'm not sure. I kind of just worked on living through it. But the bit of my brain that wasn't occupied with just remembering to breathe was busy thinking about Sookie. And how great Sookie was. And I how I really wanted her to say she'd marry me.

I didn't know why it was so much better with her. A few months ago, if any of the women that I'd dated (although that may have been a euphemism), had suggested marriage I would have fucking run a mile. Or at least driven away because this running thing was fucking hard. And if any of them had kids I didn't know and I didn't want to know.

But Sookie was different. Maybe it was just that I gave her more of a chance, but I liked to think that it was because she was meant to be mine.

Although that dating thing made me think, I'd never really taken Sookie on a real date? The closest we'd come was the drinks that night which hadn't really worked out, blow-job or no blow-job. Shit, maybe she'd like to go on a date?

We got back to Calvin and Judith's and after a few minutes I could talk again. I got the impression that Calvin was taking it a bit easier for my benefit. I'm pretty sure he didn't look as fucked as I did about now.

Judith came out to say hello, carrying their kid in her arms. "OK was it?" she asked.

"Yep, good as gold" Calvin said, kissing her. I just nodded and swallowed some water.

"So, can you stay home this morning then?" Judith asked Calvin.

"Ah" he said, "No, there's that job in Kingsland that still isn't finished so I need to be there today or else we'll still be working on Christmas day."

"Shit Calvin! How am I supposed to get everything done when I have to take Jessie around with me? You know I need to get the rest of the stuff for Christmas day! I took the day off specially and I just need a bit of help!"

Calvin muttered something that sounded suspiciously like "It's your family, not mine." Fuck, that was playing with fire. Even I didn't dare criticise the Comptons and Sookie wasn't related to them. Maybe you were allowed to say that shit if you actually had a wedding booked?

Luckily Judith chose to ignore him and just kept glaring. "What?" he said "What the fuck do you want me to do? I have to keep working; we need the money for the wedding?"

Judith glared at Calvin for a few moments longer then turned her attention to me. "Eric? Can I ask a favour?"

SPOV

When Eric came home carrying Jessica in his arms, well, trying to stop her climbing over his shoulder actually, I looked at him and said "I don't care if she followed you home, you can't keep her!"

"Yeah. Ha ha. Shit!" Jessica just about made it over his shoulder and he decided to put her down, where she promptly ran off in the direction of Amelia's room. God, Amelia was going to be annoyed about Jessica touching her stuff when she's not here.

"So, what's the story?" I asked.

"Um, I did a deal with Judith. We have Jessica this morning so she can do her shopping and she's coming over here tonight to babysit."

"Babysit?"

"Yeah. I thought I might take you out" Eric grinned at me.

"Oh. Well, yeah, that sounds good. Where do you want to go? The Thai place around the corner?"

"Um. Maybe somewhere else…fancier. Don't worry, I'll sort it out. First, I have to shower. Then I have to um…go into the city for a bit." He started walking towards the bathroom.

"Hang on. You brought me an extra child and now you're buggering off?"

"Well, she's not really extra. You're used to two kids. You've only got two kids. You'll be fine." He stepped over Felicia who said "Ma!", and side-stepped Jessica who just stared at him, and then went to the bathroom. Right, so I was baby-sitting then. "Drink!" Jessica commanded.

Eric wasn't out for long thankfully, and he was back before Judith got here which was just as well because Jessica is a handful and runs around everywhere. I'm used to Felicia, who's still a bit slower, and Amelia who's far more interested in sitting and having long conversations with me. Jessica was hard work.

But Judith turned up about 2 o'clock and moaned about how busy all the shops were. Yeah, I could imagine. She was hosting Lorena, Portia and Glen on Christmas day as Sarah was going to see Matt's family up north. She checked again I didn't want to come. I really didn't, and I was sure Eric felt the same. We'd have Christmas with just the four of us. I didn't want Eric's first Christmas in New Zealand to be spoiled by Bill's family yelling at each other.

Judith said she'd be back about 7 o'clock, so the rest of the afternoon was spent organising things and then feeding and bathing the kids so they were in bed before Judith got here. And also cleaning the house because nothing is worse than having someone sit in your lounge all night and stare at the dust.

I kept trying to find out where we were going, but all I got was that it was somewhere nice. So I got myself ready and actually put a dress on for the first time in forever. I needed help with the shoe choice though.

"Eric?" I asked. "Are we walking or driving?"

"Um. I hadn't thought about it."

"Well if we can we should probably walk, they'll have checkpoints everywhere for Christmas."

"OK then. Walking it is."

So I put my good shoes in my handbag and went with something I could walk in.

Judith turned up only five minutes late and we edged out the door as fast as we could. This was quite exciting going out just the two of us.

"So I take it we're going up to the Village then?"

"Yeah, the walking thing gives that away, huh?"

"Yeah, but I don't know where we're going."

I had to keep telling Eric to slow down as I didn't want to arrive there all hot and sweaty and so the walk took a bit longer than normal, but soon we were reaching the start of the Mt Eden shops. "So, where are we headed?" I asked.

Eric pointed. "Over there?"

"What the café?"

"No, down from there."

"Oh. Molten. Wow. I haven't been there in….years." I saw Eric register that I'd probably been there with Bill. Yeah, I had, but that wasn't the last time. "The last time I went was with Tara three days before I had Amelia." Eric relaxed a bit.

"I'm surprised you could get a reservation" I said when we were seated "It's normally so busy in here."

Eric shrugged. "I just called in here on my way back from the city today and asked."

"They must like you!" I laughed. "So…what happens next?"

Eric looked at me "What do you mean?"

"Well, I last went on a proper date about 16 years ago. So I'm completely out of touch. What on earth do we do?"

"Oh, well, we eat some dinner, talk about ourselves, and then in gratitude for it all, you put out." He went back to looking at the menu. I just about spat the water I was sipping all over the table.

"You're that confident, huh?"

"Yep."

"Good for you, Eric. Good for you."

"You say that like you're not a sure thing."

"Well let's just eat dinner first shall we?"

"Good plan."

It was a good plan because the food was really fantastic. As were the drinks. Dessert cocktails are the way to go.

And it was nice to talk to Eric for a while and have him all to myself. I didn't even mind when he kept calling me his wife to the waitress. Well I kicked him a bit under the table, but after a while I even stopped doing that. I blame the dessert cocktails. They had a Toblerone one. I highly recommend it.

So I was feeling happy and giggly when we left. Eric was looking a bit happy too. It was a good thing we were walking and not driving. Especially as I'd been walking for about 10 minutes before I realised I'd forgotten to change my shoes back so it was no wonder my feet were hurting.

As predicted we passed a police checkpoint on Mt Eden Road. We also passed the house that Eric had christened Santa's base of operations in New Zealand. It looked pretty in the dark and we stopped to look for a while. There may have been kissing at that point.

Eric was certainly getting fairly handsy as we walked down the road. It started with hand holding, progressed to his arm around my shoulders and ended with a lot of bum-grabbing.

So when we came in the door at home we were both grinning like idiots. We went into the living room and Eric stood behind me. Very close behind me. Practically rubbing himself against me. It wasn't that helpful when I was trying to check with Judith that there hadn't been any major problems while we were out.

Judith took in what was happening and grabbed her book and left pretty quickly. Eric scooped me up and carried me into the bedroom, depositing me on the bed.

"Fuck Sookie" he said, lying on top of me and starting to kiss down my cleavage "I really fucking want to fuck you now."

"Eric, have you ever noticed how sometimes every second word you say is fuck?"

"Fuck yes." He was busy with the zip on the back of my dress, so I decided I'd help him with his shirt buttons. It only seemed fair.

He tugged my dress off and then pulled the cups of my bra down. I'd got his shirt undone but wasn't having a lot of luck getting it off him as he had one of my breasts in his mouth and I couldn't push it far enough off his shoulders.

Then he looked up at me. "Let's try somewhere different" he announced.

"Different?"

"Yeah. Not the bed."

"Oh. Where then?"

"Um. Bathroom?"

"Just too small."

"Other bathroom?"

"Too close to sleeping people."

"Um…table?"

"We eat there! Living room?"

"Done that already. Kitchen?"

"No curtains. Andy and Halleigh do not need to see that."

Eric thought for a bit then a huge grin spread across his face. "Deck" he said decisively.

"Deck?"

"Yeah. It was great at Piha. It's a warm night. Let's have sex on the deck."

"Oh. But what about the neighbours?"

"The fence at the back is tall enough to hide us. And I don't think they can really see from the sides. Not unless they look. Come on Sookie! It will be fucking fantastic! You know you want to!" The weird thing was I did, kind of. Stupid dessert cocktails.

Eric looked up again and peered at me. "You do! You fucking do want to! I can see it! OK…" he stood up "…go and get two blankets." I stood up and pulled my bra back up. I guess we were doing this.

Eric was busy finding a condom so I crept to the linen cupboard and pulled out two old blankets. When I got back Eric had stripped off and was rolling the condom on. Boy, he was really keen on this idea.

I handed him a blanket which he held around his waist, then draped the other one around myself. Eric frowned. "You have to be naked Sookie" he said to me.

"I'm not going out there naked! What if someone sees?"

"No one will see. Come on. It's better if you're naked. And we have blankets anyway."

I sighed. Jeez, naked Eric was always so _demanding_. I started taking off my underwear and Eric disappeared out of the room.

I pulled the blanket around my shoulders when I was naked and headed off to find Eric. He was on the deck, sitting on the cushion off one of the sun-loungers, with the blanket still around his waist. When he saw me there in the darkness he opened the blanket so I could straddle him. Holding my blanket closed with one hand, I used the other hand to put him in the right place then I lowered myself down. Well, yeah. That did feel good. It always does.

Eric grinned at me. I think. It was pretty dark and we'd left the lights off in the family room. "See, it's fucking fantastic" he said.

"Yeah, OK. I'll give you that" I said and then I began to move. That felt so fucking good. But I still had the blanket clutched to my chest and my breasts felt lonely and unloved. So I loosened it and let it drop to my waist so I could press my chest against Eric's.

"Oh, fuck Sookie" Eric groaned, while thrusting up into me. "Fuck, fuck, fuck." For some reason that seemed funny and I giggled.

But then I felt my orgasm start to build and I stopped giggling and started just wanting more contact, more friction, more anything that was going to bring me my release. "So fucking tight" Eric whispered to me, which made me feel even hotter than I already was.

I felt like my skin was on fire and the cool night air felt lovely, so I wasn't actually upset when I had to let go of the blanket completely in order to cling tighter to Eric. It slipped down and off so that it was in a puddle on Eric's legs and I was pretty much uncovered completely.

"Eric" I moaned as his hand found my clit "Eric. Make me come, please."

"Oh fuck Sookie" he said and he started moving faster and his tongue slid into my mouth and mimicked the actions of his hips. Then suddenly I came with a great shudder and I felt Eric tense up underneath me just a few seconds later. We sat there for a minute panting and grinning at each other. Then Bob decided to wander over to see what we were doing and set off the sensor light above the deck.

"Fuck!" I yelled grabbing the blanket from behind me and wrapping it around me. Eric started laughing like this was the funniest thing ever. I eased myself off him and went inside to the bedroom. I heard him head to the bathroom and then he joined me.

"Thank fuck Bob waited until we'd finished!" he said still laughing.

"I'm glad you find it funny" I said. "Next time, turn the sensor light off."

"So there's a next time then?" Eric looked at me expectantly.

I got into bed. "Maybe. If you're good" I said grudgingly.

"Yeah. It was fucking fantastic. Sex on the deck." He pulled me to him "I think it brings out the exhibitionist in you Sookie. You're really hot." He kissed my shoulder.

"Yeah, but there are limits to my exhibitionism." We lay there for a bit. "It was a good date though. Thank you for that Eric, I had a nice time."

"My pleasure. We'll do it again. And I'll remember the sensor light."

I wanted to tell him not to count me as a sure thing, but frankly I was. Now he knew about the dessert cocktails I had no chance.

**Thanks for reading!**


	28. Chapter 28

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**Disclaimer: Not mine!**

SPOV

On the 23rd December I got back from dropping Amelia at her last day at preschool for the year to find a slightly stressed looking Eric standing on the front lawn surrounded by large boxes.

I got Felicia out of the car and went over to him "What's happening?" I asked. I looked at one of the boxes. "Springfree trampoline?"

"Yeah" said Eric, still looking really vague. "It's the trampoline."

"You got a trampoline?"

"Yeah. I told you that."

"No. No, last I heard you thought it was a good idea."

"Well it was a good idea. Except that I thought they'd set it up when they delivered it. And they didn't. Apparently they're just the couriers." Eric was running his hand through his hair and kind of staring into the distance, perhaps in the direction the courier truck had driven off in.

"Yeah, well. That would be standard. You normally have to put this stuff together yourself." Eric turned and looked at me like I was a nutcase. "Welcome to New Zealand" I said, patting him on the arm. "No amount of tipping is going to make a courier put that together for you. But I will help you put the boxes in the garage. Felicia, if I put you on the lawn, can you just sit there for a minute?"

Felicia said "Bub" so I took that as a yes, although she looked a bit put out when I put her down on the grass so she may have regretted her answer.

Eric and I carried the boxes over to the garage. "I always thought this was a shed" he said.

"No, it's a garage. Probably built in 1940-something, and you can't fit any modern cars in it, but it's definitely a garage."

"Oh, OK." Eric still seemed a bit shell-shocked by the whole thing. I felt really sorry for him. I guess he was used to a whole other world where things happened differently.

We collected Felicia who was trying to eat a daisy she'd pulled out of the lawn and went inside, where Eric got out his laptop and looked up the Springfree website. Yep no mention of them putting it together for you. There were some videos posted that showed you how to put the trampolines together. We watched the applicable one. Several times.

I stood up and patted Eric on the shoulder. "I think you might have to ring Calvin" I said.

"Yeah. I think you might be right. Fuck, that looks…complicated."

"Oh, I'm sure you can do it." Yeah, I had my doubts but I didn't want to push him any further over the edge.

Eric rallied slightly. "Yeah. Yeah, I can do it. I'll do it tomorrow night so it's there for Christmas morning. Might call Calvin though…" With that he stood up.

"Well, you might want to mow the lawns today then. Once the tramp is up you'll have to move it each time, so you might as well get them done now before you have that hassle."

Eric looked at me intently. "How do you know this stuff?" he asked.

"Um. How do you not?"

Eric shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe I was busy the day they were instructing people in lawn maintenance with a trampoline."

"Doing what?"

Eric started to walk off. "Wouldn't you like to know?" he said enigmatically, over his shoulder.

Well, yeah I thought. I would actually. I had all sorts of questions about Eric's life before he got here, but he was never that keen on talking about it. Oh well. I went off to replenish the Christmas tree's water and vacuum up some pine needles.

EPOV

I probably should have paid more attention to what it said on the website when I ordered the fucking trampoline. It never really occurred to me that someone wouldn't set it up for you. And now I was stuck doing it. Fuck. The only consolation was that once it was up I'd get to see Sookie bouncing. Yeah, that would be worth it.

I sent a text to Calvin to see if he could come and help put the fucking thing together. He probably owed me for nearly killing myself going running with him.

When I found Sookie again she was back in her spot poking under the Christmas tree. Yeah, that was a fucking awesome view.

I noticed that a few presents had started to appear under the tree so I took a closer look. "Oooh, that one's got my name on it!" I said to Sookie.

"Yep, but NO TOUCHING! I mean it." She turned waggled a finger at me.

"I was only looking!" I said, holding my hands up.

"I should hope so too. No present poking is allowed. I've had too many nasty surprises thanks to Jason over the years."

"OK. Do you want me to help?"

"No, it's alright. I think it I got it all." She dragged the vacuum back out of the room and left. I went back to looking at the presents. Oh fuck. There were ones there from Amelia and Felicia to me. Fuck, fuck, fuck. I suddenly realised that if the 'kid's' were buying me gifts, then maybe they should be buying them for Sookie too. Except that they hadn't. Because I hadn't bought any. And fuck again.

I tried to come up with something really fast; preferably something I could get delivered. Nope, there was no way I was getting anything online in this country this close to Christmas.

I was going to have to go out. Shit.

Sookie was sitting on the family room floor with Felicia so I sat down next to them. "Um" I said "I have to go out for a bit, so um, I'll be back soon. And I'll do the lawn later on."

"Oh" said Sookie "OK. Are you going to be back for lunch? It's only a half-day for Amelia so I'll have to go and get her soon."

"Um. Not sure. Don't wait for me. OK?"

"OK. Well have fun, out there, in the mayhem."

"Yeah, thanks for that." It might have been better if I had any fucking clue where I was going.

SPOV

Eric did not seem to be having a good morning. First there was the confusion over the trampoline, now something had happened and he'd raced off out. I wondered if he'd suddenly realised that had to buy me a present. Although he'd made enough trips into the city that surely he'd organised something by now. I hoped to God he wasn't going anywhere near Sophie-Anne.

Although he'd tell me that surely?

I picked up Amelia at midday and was informed that Santa was going to be here soon. I guess they'd been talking about it at pre-school. She wasn't really convinced there were two more sleeps until the big day because surely if the teachers had told her it was happening, it was happening NOW!

It's hard to argue with Amelia sometimes. In the end I resorted to a lot of nodding and going "uh-huh" while I let my mind drift off to what Eric might be up to. I hoped he was OK out there.

EPOV

Oh fuck it was busy at St Luke's. I really really should have thought of this earlier. I knew as soon as I had to join a queue just to get into the parking lot that this was a bad idea. And after I'd spent what felt like days waiting for a spot I realised I might as well have walked here for the time I'd spent in the car.

The mall itself wasn't much better. It was worse than the previous Friday, much much worse. And while I might not have had two kids with me this time I did not have a plan as to what I was getting. And I really fucking hated that. It meant I had to walk around and look in shops in the hope of being struck with inspiration. It was like being Sookie. How did she find this enjoyable? Because it drove me fucking nuts.

I couldn't find anything really suitable and I was getting a bit desperate. It was long past lunchtime. I just wanted go home. I went to Starbuck's and bought coffee. That might help. And it did, somehow. I had an idea. I was going to need Amelia's help later on, but I had an idea at least.

SPOV

Eric turned up about 2 o'clock looking stressed and empty-handed. Shit, I hope he hadn't been off participating in any subterfuge involving Sophie-Anne. "OK?" I asked.

"Yeah" he said sinking down onto the picnic rug where I was sitting with Felicia while Amelia bounced around on her new moonhopper making me feel hot from watching her.

I reached over and rubbed his back and he put his head on my shoulder. Felicia tried to crawl over me to get to Eric, who was obviously far more interesting.

After a minute like that I said "Right, let's do something fun. How about some bubbles?"

Eric looked at me. "Champagne?" he asked.

"No, actual bubbles. I'll go and get the bubble maker."

"Bubbles?" Amelia asked as she bounced over. "I love bubbles!"

EPOV

The shopping trip drained me a bit, but bizarrely the bubbles were quite fun. Amelia went nuts for them, chasing them all around the garden. Felicia was a bit quiet at first, but then laughed and squealed and looked confused when they broke on her head. Bob hid under a bush by the fence after some landed near him and he thought they were out to get him. Yeah, that part was fucking funny.

Living with Amelia and Felicia I'd discovered that most of the time they were fucking loud, but you did appreciate the times when they were at least laughing. The good mood was infectious.

Sookie got the paddling pool out for them next and I'd mustered enough energy to carry warm water from the house for her to fill it with. She tipped in most of Amelia's tea set with them and we refereed to make sure everyone got something to play with, and no one got accidentally drowned. There was a lot of giggling and splashing and the occasional shout of "No! Felicia!" from Amelia.

I fucking loved my family.

I looked over to where Sookie was stationed on the other side of the paddling pool. The front of her t-shirt had been splashed which was quite a good look on her. "Sookie" I said over the heads of the kids, who were squealing and giggling like there was no tomorrow.

"Yeah?" she answered, a bit distracted by trying to stop Felicia climbing out of the pool and onto her lap.

"Sookie, can we get married? I mean, do you want to get married?" Fuck, please say yes, I thought.

Sookie looked at me and frowned, while using one hand to hold Felicia back. "Um. Yeah, alright then" she said, and then she looked down at Felicia again.

That was it. That was the final stage after 'we'll see', 'possibly' and 'maybe'. 'Alright then' always meant that Amelia had finally worn her mother down and would get what she wanted. And so, it appeared, would I.

I moved around to the other side of the pool so I could sit next to Sookie. "Really?" I asked, "It's not just because I've worn you down?"

"Well, your persistence has probably helped your cause. But yeah. OK. We will. Sometime."

"Fanfuckingtastic" I said, and I leaned over and kissed her. I tried to push her over so she was lying on the grass, but she kept hitting me in the back and wouldn't bend. "I have to watch Felicia" she said.

"Oh, OK" I let go of her. Well most of her. I kept a hand on her thigh. I was fairly sure she wasn't going to run away but maybe I wasn't going to take any chances.

"What's happening?" Amelia asked frowning, realising that something was up.

"Um. Eric wants to marry me" Sookie said.

"Oh" said Amelia. "Does that mean you get to be a princess again?"

"Something like that."

"What do I get to be?"

"Um. A princess too."

"Will I get a dress?"

"I guess so."

"Well that's OK then. Can I have a tiara?"

"If you really have to."

"Well if I'm a princess I do." Amelia stopped and thought for a bit. "Will Sophie-Anne be there?"

"Absolutely not" I said.

"She's not nice."

"No" said Sookie "She's not. And we don't like people who aren't nice."

Amelia looked thoughtful again, but then obviously lost interest in the conversation as the next thing she said was "Felicia! The pink cup is mine! You have the green one!"

"Bub!"

"Can you share nicely please Amelia?" asked Sookie.

"I was sharing. I'm sharing the green cup!" Amelia said indignantly, before going back to pretending to cook or at least hording the toys down her end of the pool.

I pulled Sookie back so she was leaning against my chest and I kissed the top of her head. "I love you" I said.

"I love you too."

Well the afternoon had certainly made up for the morning.

When the kids got out of the pool Sookie took them inside so I could mow the lawn. That was hot, sweaty work. I could have done with a swim afterwards, but there was no way I could fit in the paddling pool. I had to make do with a lonely shower instead.

After that I took Amelia and Felicia off to put my plan for Sookie's present into action. Sookie watched curiously as I took them off to the bedroom one at a time, but she didn't say anything.

We got through dinner without Amelia spilling the beans on what we'd been up to. How she was going to keep her mouth shut for another whole day I didn't know. Perhaps she'd get distracted by something else? I wondered if I could get Felicia to start walking or something, as the effort involved in guarding her toys might keep her occupied.

Sookie kept looking at me and smiling. I was probably grinning at her like an idiot. I probably should have asked the night before when we had our date. I guess that would have been more romantic. Then we could have eaten in peace without having Felicia throwing things on the floor and Amelia arguing with Sookie over whether she liked carrots or not.

But this was life I guess. And it was really only my afternoon in the sun with them all that pushed me to actually ask Sookie again. They were mine. All of them. Even fucking Bob and his disgusting offerings.

And I wasn't even really scared by that thought.

By the time the kids were tucked in for the night, though, I was very keen on having Sookie all to myself so we could celebrate. She was trying to clean up the kitchen so I just stood behind her and whispered in her ear "We're getting married."

"Yep, we've established that."

"Try and sound happy about it!"

She turned around to face me. "Oh Eric. I am, I really am. But it's so quick. I think…I think we'll just keep it between us for a while, OK? And get used to it. And we don't have to rush and do it tomorrow or anything. So let's play it cool."

"But…but I thought women were supposed to be happy when you asked them to marry them?" I blurted out.

"Eric! I am happy. I'm very, very happy. But I just want time to get used to it. Can you give me that? Please?" She looked up at me with her big blue eyes and I probably would have given her anything she'd asked for.

"Yeah. I can give you that. But we can celebrate, can't we?"

"Yep, we can celebrate."

"Excellent" I kissed her and then I put my hands underneath her butt and lifted her onto the counter. We stayed like for a while, kissing and slowly becoming more and more breathless until Sookie finally pulled back.

"Remember the whole no curtains thing?"

"Vaguely. I'm not thinking about much at the moment…" I wasn't, I was a little distracted. Mostly I was just thinking about getting Sookie naked and whether or not there were curtains around didn't really factor into that.

"Yeah. So we need to move this party into the bedroom."

"OK." I picked her up and carried her off to bed.

"I guess the deck is out of the question?" I asked, pulling Sookie's t-shirt over her head.

"Well yeah. It's like the longest day or something. So it'll be light out for a while."

"Maybe later then."

"Possibly."

I could have tried pushing that forward to a maybe, but I got distracted again by Sookie's boobs, and I was busy with her nipple in my mouth. The problem with that was that I kind of missed the view of her boobs I'd had from further back. It didn't seem fair really.

Then I had an idea. One of the advantages of it being light out was that there were no lights on in the house for Sookie to try to turn off. So everything in the bedroom was pretty visible.

"Sookie?" I said, looking up at her. "Do you trust me?"

"Yeah. Yeah I do."

"So…want to try something new?"

"What a new place?"

"Kind of. But not too far away. Over there." I nodded to the corner of the bed.

"What the bathroom? It's far too small really. And you said I was too short for sex in the shower."

"No, just…look don't worry I'll show you. First, let's get you naked." I helped her off with her bra and then she lifted her hips so I could pull her shorts and panties off. She pulled off my t-shirt and I took off my own shorts and boxers. I leaned over Sookie again and kissed her and then I put my hands under her back and her butt and slid her along the bed.

"What are you doing?" she asked, as I pulled her further down the bed so her legs were dangling over the edge.

"Just trust me." I said kneeling on the floor beside the bed. I kissed up one thigh and Sookie watched me, and then she looked over my head and she realised where I'd put her.

"In front of the mirror, Eric?"

"Mmm-hmm. It will be great."

"OK, but I'm keeping my eyes closed."

"It will be better if you open them."

"Yeah, we'll see."

I left her to it and just hoped she'd see it my way, and bent my head to lick her folds. Fuck, she was wet. I heard a groan come from the bed and I just hoped that Sookie would have the sense to open her eyes and watch because I thought she might be surprised.

I licked again, and then sucked her clit before using my tongue on it. I inserted two fingers into her and moved them back and forth, slowly, until Sookie started to press her hips into me and then I moved a bit quicker until I felt her spasm around my fingers.

I looked up and she was staring at the mirror intently. "I told you you'd like it."

"Yeah" she said a bit dreamily. "So…do we switch now for a bit?"

"If you like."

I sat on the bed and Sookie knelt on the floor, after getting a pillow for herself and muttering something about sore knees. I was really fucking hard at this point and when she licked across my balls and up my cock before taking it into her mouth and sucking, I just about came. But I really wanted to hold off and come inside Sookie, so I held off as best as I could and looked at the ceiling for a while before I dared to look at the mirror. Yeah mirrors were great.

I let Sookie carry on as long as I dared and then I tapped her on the shoulder. "Sookie, stop."

"Oh, OK" she said looking up.

I leaned back and reached over so I could get a condom out and I put it on. Sookie was still kneeling watching me. "OK" I said "Climb on."

Sookie stood up and put a knee on the bed on either side of my thighs, which did put her boobs at just the right height, so I licked one of her nipples. She kissed me and started to lower herself down. "Uh-uh" I said. "Turn around."

I saw her eyes widen and she bit her lip. I tried not to smile knowing this was the bit where she tried to tell me she couldn't possibly do it, or it was a silly idea and then she'd do it anyway.

"Um…Eric. I don't know if I can…you know, in front of the mirror. Seeing _everything_." Her voice had dropped down to a whisper, as though she was afraid of being overheard.

"It'll be fantastic Sookie. You're so hot. I just want to watch you when I make you come."

"But you see me anyway."

"Yeah, but I want to see all of you. It'll be fantastic." I leaned over to whisper in her ear. I'd worked out that was the key to getting her to agree, she loved the whispering. "We'll be able to see everything. Don't you want to see my cock as it slides in and out of your pussy Sookie? It will be so hot."

I looked at her face. She bit her lip and looked at me then looked down. "OK, but I'm keeping my eyes closed" she said. I think that's Sookie's code for she's going to pretend she didn't really want to do this as much as she actually does.

"OK. Well turn around then" I said. No point commenting on the eyes closed bit. She'd open them. She always does.

She got off the bed, turned around and then positioned herself in reverse. I kissed her shoulder, hoping that would relax her. And then lowered herself onto me. Fuck that felt great. I looked over her shoulder. And it looked fucking hot. Really fucking hot.

"See, isn't that a fucking awesome sight, Sookie?" She didn't say anything but just nodded. She was mesmerised. Fuck, I wondered if she'd ever seen herself like this before. I guessed not given her reaction to the suggestion.

I reached around squeezed one of her boobs and pinched a nipple. "Oh, God. Eric" she moaned, as she leaned back against my chest. Then she turned her head and kissed me.

I moved my hand down across her stomach and found her clit and started rubbing. I watched her eyes following my hand. "Oh" she said "Oh, that's…oh."

"Yeah" I said. "Yeah, it's…oh fuck…" I was so close. Sookie was getting very close too judging by the movements and the sounds she was making. I kept my hand on Sookie's clit and felt her walls clamping down on my cock. She leaned back even further, putting her arms behind her head and around my neck. Fuck her boobs were fucking awesome with that view. I put my hands on her hips and started thrusting even harder. It was so much hotter watching what was happening. And then I came as well, with a rather strangled cry of "Sookie!"

We sat there for a moment and I dropped my head to Sookie's shoulder. I helped her sit up and climb off then I went to dispose of the condom. When I got back to bed Sookie had moved so she was lying against the pillows, but she was still naked and not under the covers. Fuck me, I thought, who is this woman and where did Sookie and her need to cover herself up go?

Sookie must have caught me staring at her and she looked at me and said "Well, you know, after that I might as well throw modesty out the window. I can't decide if you're really good for my self-esteem, or bad for my inhibitions."

I lay down next to her. "Neither of those sound like a bad thing" I said, kissing her shoulder.

"No. They're not bad things. You're just very persuasive." She giggled and reached over to stroke my face.

"Is that why you said yes to marrying me? Just because I'm persuasive?" Fuck, why do I always ask these questions I don't want to know the answer to?

Sookie frowned. "God, no. No amount of persuasion could make me say yes if I didn't want to. I do want to marry you, I really do. I'm sorry if it doesn't sound like it."

"As long as you're sure, then that's all that matters." I lay back and Sookie put her head on my chest and traced patterns on my stomach with her hand.

"Completely, utterly sure. More sure than I've ever been."

"Because you're mine."

"Yeah. Yeah I am."

"And I'm yours."

"Yeah."

"And that's all that matters."

"Yes it does."

We were silent for a bit, lying together. I looked at the light coming through the doors. It was still a while until the sun set. Longest day or not, I wished it would never end. This was the best I'd ever felt. Fuck, Sookie Stackhouse was going to marry me.

"I love you, Sookie."

"I love you too. And Amelia and Felicia will love you loads after you build them that trampoline tomorrow night."

"Fuck."

**Thanks for reading!**


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N So here is Christmas Eve. Only one more chapter to go after this, but I have loads more ideas for these characters so it will not be the last you hear from them! Thanks again for the reviews!**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, but I might put them on my Christmas list.**

SPOV

Christmas Eve was always going to be a busy day, and unfortunately for Eric, that meant he didn't get a sleep-in. "Hey" I said, nudging him. No response. Amelia, Felicia and I had been up for a while, and Eric had been missing out on all the excitement that was Amelia yelling "No! Felicia's touching my stuff!", while trying to shove Felicia away with her hand, and me yelling at Amelia for bouncing a ball in the house and knocking over Bob's water bowl, followed by her shout of "You're not being nice!" and a few tears. Emotions were running high and at one point both kids had been crying. I'd been tempted to join in. Eric was either a really good actor or actually able to sleep through all of this.

"Eric!" I tried again. No response. I was kneeling on the bed by his head and I bounced a few times to make the bed move. "Get up!" I said. "I have stuff I need you to do!"

Eric opened his eyes. "Is the bouncing an indication of what it is you need me to do?" he asked.

"No, the bouncing is more a means to get you to actually wake up and move. Come on! The kids are going ballistic and I have stuff to do and I need you to get up, get in the shower and then go to Nosh to pick up the ham."

He rolled onto his back. "You lost me at 'wake up and move'" he said. "Because, you know, I'm really quite comfortable where I am."

I was getting seriously pissed off with him. "Eric Northman, if you do not get your arse out of this bed RIGHT NOW, then so help me God I will set fire to it. I mean it."

Eric looked at me for a moment, while I struggled to maintain what I hoped was my 'do what I say because I mean business!' expression. "Fine!" he said, sitting up. "Fine, I will get up and get in the shower, but don't I even get a good morning kiss?"

"Oh, all right then. If it will make you move a bit quicker then you can have a kiss." I leaned over and he put his hand behind my head, pulling me towards him. It did calm me down a bit. "Feeling better?" he asked.

"Bit" I muttered. "But you still have to get out of bed."

"Yeah, I'd got that message." He looked at the clock. "What happened while I was asleep to get you this worked up?"

"Christmas."

"Shit! How long did you let me sleep for that I missed Christmas?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"Yeah. As if that would happen. Now get up."

"OK, but…" Eric said, as he started to get out of bed "…I'll make you a deal. If you can hold off on exploding with stress for half an hour I will take one of the kids with me when I go out, OK?"

"Oh, OK. Yeah, that would be good."

"Which one do you want me to take?"

"Um, the big, bossy one." As if on cue Amelia yelled "MUM! Felicia's done POOS! You need to change her bum!"

"OK, well I'll be ready soon, unless…"

"What?"

"You could hide in the shower with me?" Yeah, it was a nice thought, but it wouldn't help my stress levels. Well, not for very long.

"Wish I could, but no. If you and Amelia could just get the ham for me, that would be enough. Thank you." I went over and hugged him and muttered "SorryIwasgrumpy" into his chest.

"That's OK" he said as I stepped back and he started walking to the bathroom. "I'm just glad I could help, after all, no one wants a grumpy wife on Christmas."

"The word you're looking for is…fiancée". Yeah, he'd gone through the door before I got that out, damn him. It would be nice to get the last word in. Why wouldn't he just stay put so I could?

I went off to deal with Felicia and tried to just calm down. There was nothing to be stressed about really. Christmas was only the four of us. It wasn't going to be like the first time I put on a big Christmas dinner and Bill spent the whole time bitching that Portia had brought her Chinese homestay with her without warning us, and then the family had spent the day shouting at the poor confused kid as if he was deaf. Of course they managed to ignore Nanny Marija, Lorena's mother, who was actually deaf and had made off with most of the white meat from the turkey because she was first for the buffet, which set off another round of muttering from Bill. Judith had been dropped off by her boyfriend at the time, but not until after they'd had a screaming match in our driveway. Not to mention we'd had Jason that year who arrived late and with the thoughtful contribution of some asparagus that was about to go off in the fridge of the flat that he shared with two other blokes. Still, that was more than either Portia or Sarah brought with them.

Yeah. Those were the days.

So really, I thought to myself, I shouldn't be stressed. Except that it was Eric's first Christmas here and I wanted it to be special for him. And there was also the small matter of the fact that we were now getting married. That may have been contributing to my stress levels just a bit.

So maybe, I thought, I'd just worry about that whole…thing after Christmas. Yep, later sounded good.

I went back to the kitchen with a much nicer to know Felicia and Eric was already there eating cereal. I had lit a fire under him obviously.

"I'm just waiting on the coffee" he said, gesturing to the machine.

"No time. It'll be busy. They sell coffee there." Eric sighed, but put his dishes in the dishwasher and yelled out "Amelia? Are you ready?"

Amelia appeared wearing a plastic tiara and carrying a pink handbag. "Yep" she said. "Mummy, I'm going in Eric's car. We're going somewhere nice. I think it's the park. Is it the park, Eric?"

"No." Eric said, grabbing his keys.

"Oh. Will there be ice cream?"

"No."

"Oh. But you said it was nice?"

"Well it is nice. You'll see." He turned to kiss me "Bye" he said.

"Yeah, bye. Be good Amelia!"

"Yeah. I'm always good. Bye Mum!" As they headed out the door I could Amelia asking "So, _where_ are we going, Eric?" Then the door shut and the house was quiet again. Well it was until Felicia started banging the plastic container she'd pulled out of a drawer on the floor. I poured myself some coffee and thought about what I needed to do for Christmas, and not about the other thing.

By the time they got back I was feeling slightly more sorted. I'd hung out some washing, while Felicia had tried to get close enough to Bob so she could squeeze him like she did her soft toys. Bob had done this before, and managed to stay tantalisingly just out of reach the whole time, by only ever moving about three steps in any direction whenever Felicia got close. It was like his personal mission, to see how close he could let her get without running away. He'd hate it when she learned to walk.

And I'd organised what we needed to take to Tara's this morning as we were having morning tea there to exchange Christmas presents and so I could hand over Tara's birthday present because she had the totally stink birthday on Boxing Day. So that present couldn't be wrapped in Christmas paper or she wouldn't let me in the house. Maybe it might be different now we're adults, but there'd been a nasty incident when we were 15 and I wasn't going to risk a repeat of that today. Tara took her birthday seriously.

So when Eric and Amelia got back the muffins I was making were just about ready and I'd laid out Amelia's clothes on her bed. Eric I'd leave to fend for himself in that regard.

"No problem getting the ham?" I asked.

"Nope. Other than the fact it was a bit busy." Eric was carrying stuff into the kitchen and seemed to have bought a lot more than the ham.

"What's all this?" I asked.

"Just some other stuff. I thought I might make breakfast tomorrow" he said taking out a couple of bottles of champagne.

"Oh. Well nothing too big I hope, or else we won't eat lunch." That statement was out of my mouth before I could stop it. Shut up, I thought; just let the man be nice to you for once.

"No. No nothing too big" he said putting more things in the fridge.

Amelia came over, her mouth covered in chocolate. "I had a fluffy, in one of the paper cups, like Eric had. And we didn't sit down to drink it." I kind of wished I'd seen the pair of them wandering around with their drinks in their hands, looking as sophisticated as you can when one of you is three and wearing a tiara.

"Well that sounds nice, I hope you said thank you."

"Yeah! Course I did."

"Right, well come here so I can wipe your face." She stepped over reluctantly so I could clean her up. "Now can you go and get changed, please? I've put some clothes on your bed."

"Is it a dress?"

"Top and leggings."

"I want a dress!"

"But it's not practical if you're going to run around Aunty Tara's garden."

"I don't CARE!" This was the point at which I always failed. I yelled back, because I just wanted her to do what I told her. That wasn't too much to ask, I thought. I was her mother. It was supposed to work that way.

But before I could say anything, Eric stepped over. "Amelia" he said warningly, "Remember what we talked about in the car?"

"No" Amelia said, still clinging to a bit of defiance.

"What did I say about Santa?" Eric continued.

"That he won't come if I'm not a good girl."

"So, you have to be nice to Mommy, and do what she says, OK?"

"OK" Amelia mumbled.

"Good girl, Ames" Eric said, patting her on the head. I was a bit dumbstruck. Ames? They'd started some kind of club and I hadn't been invited. Had Felicia?

Amelia went off to her room and Eric was looking pleased with himself, like he was the first person to ever think of using Santa as a way to get kids to do what you want. Yeah, I thought, I might let him have that one.

"Thank you" I said. "She's a handful sometimes."

"She's not so bad. You just have to know what to threaten her with."

"Yeah, that's a…interesting way of putting it. But it's probably the way it works with a three year old."

Eric hugged me but the timer on the oven went off at that point and I had to go and rescue the muffins.

EPOV

Christmas was stressing Sookie out. A lot. More than I had expected. At least I had hoped it was Christmas that was stressing her, because Christmas would be over soon. If it was anything else I was in trouble.

I knew that as soon as Sookie got stressed she and Amelia tended to butt heads, so I took her with me when I went to Nosh. I could have fucking done without her wearing a tiara of course, but no one seemed to notice, well apart from a few women who told Amelia how cute she was.

Sookie seemed a bit better when we got back, although she was suspicious of the other things I'd bought and my plan to make breakfast on Christmas day. I figured it was the least I could do given the circumstances.

Apparently this morning's plan was to go to Tara's and hand over gifts. On the drive over Amelia was chattering excitedly, Felicia was yelling random noises and Sookie was very, very quiet. I hoped like fuck she was OK.

She seemed better when we got there and she was chatting to Tara and unpacking the gifts we'd brought with us, and some blueberry muffins. It looked as though Tara had been baking for days there was so much other food there. I was kind of getting the hang of morning tea.

The kids all ripped into their presents pretty quickly, except for Felicia who was just happy to have something shiny to hold and was actually kind of annoyed when Charlotte took the paper off it for her. The adults were more restrained and Tara and JB liked their gift and had bought Sookie what looked like a basket of fancy food items. "I went through Nosh and bought a whole lot of stuff that looked good" Tara said.

"Oh well then, I'll give this to Eric, it's his favourite store" Sookie said passing the basket to me.

"Oh, what? No, I'm not taking your gift off you" I said, holding it.

"It's OK. It's got your name on it too." I had a look, it did. It was actually quite nice to be included.

I was a bit confused when Tara switched off the Christmas tree lights, but apparently that was the signal that we were moving on to celebrate her birthday. So she opened the gift that Sookie had bought her the other day, which had carefully been wrapped in plain paper, and we all sang happy birthday. Then the kids, apart from Felicia who was on a mission to shred the discarded paper, disappeared outside and I finally got to try one of the muffins. They were pretty fucking awesome.

After spending the morning watching Sookie being alternately stressed and quiet it was nice to see her chatting to Tara. There seemed to be a lot of giggling going on in the kitchen where the two of them were standing.

I went outside to Amelia's shouts of "Eric! I'm stuck!" so I could get her down from where she insisted on getting herself to on the climbing frame. How she could get up there and not get down I don't know. I stood guard as she had another go at climbing up and JB came over to talk to me.

"So, are you guys all set for tomorrow?" he asked.

"Uh, yeah. I guess. Hey, how hard are those to put together?" I asked, nodding at the trampoline. Amelia was now on the swing set with Lachlan and thankfully out of earshot.

"Oh, not so bad. My father-in-law helped, although his idea of help is mainly standing around drinking beer." JB laughed.

"Oh, right" I said.

"He's not so bad. Most of the time. When he's not drinking. He tends to go on these benders and get utterly smashed at totally inappropriate times. Has Sookie told you about the cricket?"

"Um. No."

"Yeah. I don't know what he was thinking getting those two as thirteen year olds to smuggle his beer in to Eden Park stuffed in the cushions they were carrying. I guess he figured no one would search young girls."

"Oh, yeah." There wasn't much I could say to that, even my dad hadn't used me to smuggle alcohol for him.

"Yeah, 'course he's slowed down a bit these days. Cirrhosis of the liver. That works wonders."

"Mmm" I wondered how good my dad's liver was. Fuck. I supposed I'd have to call him for Christmas. And tell him I was living in New Zealand. And I was getting married.

The mood was a bit sombre now so I decided to try for something happier. "So, um, Sookie and I are getting married" I said, which was the first thing that came into my head, and then I remembered that it was just supposed to be between us. Fuck. Still, she was close to Tara. Maybe she'd told Tara?

"Oh, wow. That's great, Eric. Congratulations." JB tried to sound enthusiastic, but I got the impression that he was a little bit worried about Sookie. I guess he had known her a hell of lot longer than he'd known me. Maybe Sookie was right and we should just keep this quiet. Well, there was no going back now.

"Yeah, it's really great. Or it would be, if Sookie seemed…happier about it."

"They're funny about weddings, women. Tara gave me an ultimatum to propose or she was leaving me, and then spent the next year planning the most over the top 'low-key' wedding I've ever seen. And I think when Sookie married Bill she got so stressed out by her mother in law she practically stopped eating for two months…" JB stopped talking at that point, realising what he'd said, and just looked at the ground. It made me think though. Maybe she was stressed out by the thought of the actual wedding?

Amelia was being bossed around by Charlotte, which was actually an interesting phenomenon to observe, so I went back inside followed by JB. "So have you guys been celebrating?" he asked, going over to pick up another muffin.

"Yeah, although I've decided I'm going to stay 34 for another year" Tara said.

"No, Sookie's news. That she and Eric are getting married" JB said, through a mouthful of food.

Tara's eyes widened. "Why didn't you tell me this?" she demanded.

"Oh, um. Oh, well, we weren't telling anyone, I thought…" Sookie said, before turning to glare at me. Yeah, I'd fucked up big time.

"Well I'm not anyone! I'm your oldest friend. I was matron of honour at your last wedding, sorry Eric, so I think I deserve to know first!"

"It only happened yesterday" Sookie mumbled, looking like a little girl being scolded by her mom.

"Well, I'll let you off then. But don't do it again!" Her expression softened. "Congrats though you guys!" she leaned over and kissed Sookie on the cheek, before coming to do the same to me. Sookie just looked like she wanted the kitchen floor to open up and swallow her.

"It's nice to see a guy who doesn't have to be gently persuaded to actually ask the question."

JB snorted. "Gentle persuasion! I seem to remember you telling me that if I didn't ask you, you were leaving me."

"Quite right too. I wasn't wasting my youth on you if it wasn't going anywhere."

"Yeah, but we didn't have to race to get married."

"We did if you wanted children. I seem to remember you being really keen on that bit, and I definitely wanted to be married first."

"Yeah, well you got your wedding in the end."

"And you got your children so everyone was happy."

During this exchange I'd edged closer to Sookie and put a hand on her back. I took it as good sign she didn't try to shrug it off or move away. It was probably the only good sign I was going to get.

Sookie was quiet for the rest of the visit. Well, she talked to Tara, and she told Amelia off when Amelia was trying to boss Lachlan around, but she didn't really talk to me. And she was silent all the way home. Completely silent.

After helping Sookie get everything and everyone out of the car I went to sit on the deck on the pretext of…well I didn't have a pretext, but probably Sookie wasn't talking to me so I guess she wasn't asking me what I was doing. I had fucked up royally. This Christmas was supposed to be special; it was supposed to be a start for us. And now, I'd fucked up and I probably wasn't even getting married. And I wanted a drink. And I was a fuck-up. And I had to build a trampoline.

I was so busy going through the list of everything that I'd fucked up, or was about to fuck up, that I didn't hear Sookie come up behind me. She handed me a cup of coffee and a Christmas mince pie and sat down next to me with her own cup. "I can't keep secrets either, especially not from Tara" she said, staring straight ahead.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah. The only thing that stopped me telling her we were getting married today was the fact that Tara was too busy telling me she'd cut JB off from sex until he agreed to get a vasectomy, because she does not want any more kids. So she probably would have found out anyway if she'd shut up for five minutes."

"Oh. I am supposed to know about the vasectomy thing?"

She shrugged. "I said I can't keep secrets. She tells JB everything anyway. Every time I got pregnant I always said that I'd wait until the first 12 weeks were up to tell her, and every time I told her about two days after I'd taken the test because I was desperate for some sympathy for my morning sickness. I'm totally useless at secrets. And then of course Tara would tell JB and when he congratulated us, I'd get it in the ear from Bill because he was being really circumspect and not telling anyone in his family. So it's probably just as well you can't keep a secret either. It makes us evenly matched."

"Well I can keep secrets, when I have to. I just…I just wanted to tell someone. So it felt more real or something."

"Yeah, I know what you mean. Well it does. Feel real. Doesn't it?" She turned to look at me.

"Yeah, it does. So we're good?"

"Yep. We're good. Now eat your mince pie because you'll need your energy for tonight. Is Calvin coming over?"

"Yeah, he texted me to say he'd be here about 7.30pm. So Amelia should be asleep by then?"

"Hopefully. Although she's getting pretty excited about the whole thing. I'm just glad Charlotte didn't let on who Santa really is, because I know she knows the truth and she was rolling her eyes every time Amelia mentioned Santa. I guess maybe she's the only one who can keep a secret."

"Yeah. Fuck. That would have been sad if Amelia had found out today about Santa."

"What about Santa?" asked Amelia, coming to join us. Fuck that was close.

"Um, that Santa is coming to New Zealand first because it's Christmas Eve here first" Sookie said.

"Oh" said Amelia "Is that all?

"Yeah" I said "That's all."

"OK. Mum, can I have another muffin?"

"How many muffins have you had?" Sookie asked.

"Eric's had loads!" Amelia said indignantly.

"Yeah, OK then. Why not? It's Christmas after all."

SPOV

I was a bit annoyed at first with Eric for spilling the beans about us getting married. Admittedly I'd been working up the courage to tell Tara about it while she'd been chatting away about how she wasn't letting JB anywhere near Felicia because she'd spend the next two weeks having to tell him that no, he wasn't getting a third baby out of her. I wanted to see her reaction. Which is dumb, because it's really my reaction that matters, but all the same. I thought it might be a good sanity check.

And then Eric tells JB and she gets to hear it from them and I'll never know whether she was just being polite or not. Although, I guess if she really thought I was being stupid she would have hauled me off to tell me. We'd known each too long for it to just come down to politeness.

And if she did think I was being stupid then I guess it gave her something to talk about with JB, while they weren't having sex. Euw, you don't really want to think about what your best friend does with her husband. Or not, as the case may be.

So I left Eric on the deck with Amelia and Felicia who'd come out to see what was happening and I'd brought the washing in off the line. All of sudden there was a shout from Eric "Sookie! Get here now!" and I thought something awful was happening.

"What?" I asked when I got there.

"Felicia pulled herself up on the seat on the edge of the deck." Felicia was currently sitting on her bum by the seat so I'd have to take his word for it. "Hang around and see if she does it again" he said.

So I sat down and we waited for a bit, and Amelia demonstrated how she could walk along the seat and I tried to suppress the mothering instincts that made me want to stop her. But Felicia looked bored and came over to where I was sitting instead.

After a few minutes Eric said "Let's try this" and he took off his sunglasses and put them on the seat and waited. Sure enough Felicia worked out something contraband was there and slowly crawled over to it, obviously going for stealth mode, then hauled herself up, grabbed the sunglasses and promptly hurled them off the deck.

"Shit" said Eric as he went to retrieve them. Luckily they'd survived the fall onto the grass. "She's good at throwing though, have you noticed that?" he said as he came back up.

"Um, no I hadn't."

"Yeah, she is."

Felicia was back sitting by the seat looking really annoyed that Eric hadn't given her back her treasure. I went and got a ball and put that on the seat and after a bit of persuasion she stood up and got it and threw that as well. She repeated the trick several times for us while Amelia stomped off to her room because no one was paying attention to her.

"That's really cool" Eric said.

"Yeah. I wonder when we can teach her to bowl?" I asked.

"Bowl? Like bowling?"

"No, bowl in cricket. See, she's pretty good at keeping her arm straight already."

"OK…I'll take your word for it."

"Well wait for Boxing Day, there's a 20/20 match on. I'll teach you all I know about cricket, which will probably take me about five minutes but you'll catch on."

"Sounds great."

"Yeah, I like cricket. Tara's dad used to take us to the games at Eden Park. It was a great way to spend a day, we'd sit there and get a tan and try to get ourselves on TV. Good times." I went quiet remembering how much fun it was. "Of course Tara's dad used to get sloshed, and we had to smuggle in his beer for him because they only sold DB and he only drank Lion Red, but, you know, we coped."

"Yeah, I'd heard something about that from JB earlier."

"In retrospect perhaps it wasn't the best lesson to be teaching teenage girls."

"No."

"Yeah. There you go, that was my rebellious youth. Smuggling beer into Eden Park."

"Wow. You were really out there." I looked over at Eric and he was grinning.

"Shut up. You know I was a good girl. Far too scared of authority to get in trouble. God I hope my two take after me in that regards, and not my brother."

"I hate to break it to you, but I'm not sure Amelia is really that impressed with authority."

"Yeah. I like that she stands up for herself, but sometimes…" I trailed off, thinking about how badly wrong it could go for her. "She doesn't mind your authority though."

"No, not so much."

"Well, I'll just have to keep you around then. At least until she's a teenager. Otherwise I'd be stuffed."

"I'm glad you're keeping me around for something."

"Oh, you have your uses. Right I'm off to finish folding laundry. An underpants fairy's work is never done."

About 5.30 I went and found Eric again, he was watching some terrible Christmas cartoon on TV with Amelia asking him constant questions about what was going on, and Felicia trying to get near the presents under the tree, which we'd blocked into the corner with furniture. "So" I said "I'm not cooking tonight."

"Right" said Eric, trying to listen to me over Amelia.

"So we can order pizza if you like."

Eric got off the couch and came over to me. "OK" he said, "from where?"

"Hell."

"Hell?"

"Yeah, Hell Pizza. Have you not seen them? They're all over the place. Anyway I'll get the menu."

I pulled a menu out for Eric to look at and he studied it for a while before deciding. I was happy with anything I wasn't cooking at this stage of the day and I hoped Amelia would eat it. I fed Felicia her dinner while Eric rang up and had to negotiate them missing some words with his accent. Possibly having me mouthing "Yeah, you talk funny!" at him wasn't helping him concentrate either.

Amelia was fascinated with the idea that someone was going to bring food to the door and spent about twenty minutes watching out the window to see when it would arrive. I guess it took her mind off Santa for a while.

She did like her pizza. I guess because it was pretty obvious I had nothing to do with its creation. She dragged out eating though, and didn't want to get in the bath. I was conscious that it was getting close to 7.30pm and I needed her in bed and asleep. Eventually we got her there, just as Calvin arrived.

"Hey, how's it going?" I asked him as he stepped inside.

"Oh, it's mad at our house. Judith is in a complete meltdown. I keep saying to her that it's only her mum and Portia coming, but apparently Lorena is insisting they all drive out to Nanny Marija's grave in the morning, and Portia won't be finished with Church until nearly midday and now the timings are all out apparently and I'm just glad to be here tonight. Where it's calm. Oh, hey Eric!"

Eric had appeared behind me and the pair of them went off to watch the instructional video on the website. Calvin seemed a lot more confident than Eric about the whole enterprise so that was something. I left them to it and just had the occasional glance out the window. When I first looked there were an awful lot of pieces just laid out on the lawn. When I looked a second time it was taking shape as they had most of the rods that this tramp had instead of springs in place. When I looked the third time Andy had obviously got wind that something was happening in our backyard, as he'd jumped the fence to help, or maybe just escape Halleigh. Either way, I could see where Riley got it from.

By about 9 o'clock it was done and they were all standing around congratulating each other so I took them out some beer and Christmas mince pies. Andy went home not long after that, and Calvin finally left about quarter to ten. If our place was that much nicer than his, I wasn't sure how he was going to cope with Judith in full-on bride mode in a couple of months.

"Well, you did it!" I said to Eric. "Well done you."

"Yeah. Fuck, I wouldn't have wanted to do it alone despite what they tell you in that video. No way is that a one person job. I should send them an email."

I shrugged. "Yeah, well. It's done now."

"Yeah. So what happens next?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, with Christmas?"

"Oh, right, well we put out the stuff from Santa I guess. It's all under the bed."

So we hauled out the presents I'd stashed away and put them in two piles, each with a named pillowcase that had a few pressies in it. "Well, that's Santa's work done now. So I guess its bedtime."

"Um, do you want to open one of your gifts?"

"What? Now?"

"Yeah, why not? Here…" he said, reaching over and grabbing something out from under the tree, "Open this one."

"Oh, OK. Well in that case you open this one." I handed him one of the presents I'd got him.

"You go first" Eric said, watching me. I tore into the paper and pulled out, a nightie. Only it wasn't an old-lady nightie like I'd bought Lorena. This was satiny and had red flowers on a white background. "Oh, it's lovely" I said.

"Yeah, I thought it would be less scratchy than the bra. I liked the fabric." I tried to visualise at what point Eric had been wandering around looking at women's nightwear and testing the feel of all the stock, and got stuck at the point in my daydream where about six shop assistants all fought over who was going to serve him or possibly model his choices for him.

"Thank you" I said. "Now it's your turn." Although what I'd bought Eric wasn't nearly as exciting as a nightie.

He opened the paper and pulled it out and looked at it. "A coat?" he said.

"Yeah, rain jacket. You'll need it, because when it's, like, late winter here it rains every single day so, you know, I didn't want you to get wet…" I trailed off. Yeah it was a stink present. "Sorry" I said. "I know it's not as good as what you got me."

"No. No, it's great" he said, smiling at me.

"Really?"

"Really. No one's ever cared enough about whether I got wet before to buy me a coat."

"OK, that makes it sound a bit dumb."

"No, it's not. It's a lovely gift. Thank you."

He leaned over and kissed me, and then we kissed some more. "So" he said "are you going to try your present on for me?"

"Yeah, come on then. Let's give it a go."

"Good. Oh, and Sookie?"

"Yeah?"

"I didn't get the matching panties. Maybe for your birthday. If you're good." He raised his eyebrows at me.

"I'll keep that in mind, and try to be really, really good then Eric."

"Maybe not that good. Maybe just a little bit bad?"

"For you, Eric, I can try to be a little bit bad."

"Excellent. Let's go practice that then."

**Thanks for reading!**

**Oh, and I meant to say before. When I mentioned the Toblerone cocktail a couple of chapters back some of you said how yummy they sounded. So I looked up the Molten website and these are the ingredients (although of course they don't give you quantities): Butterscotch liqueur, kahlua, baileys, frangelico & hokey pokey dust (hokey pokey is honeycomb if you're a non-Kiwi). So you can see how it would be both tempting and rather easy to get drunk on!**


	30. Chapter 30

**A/N Here is is! The final chapter of Home for Christmas. I hope everyone likes it, and thanks to all those who have been reading, reviewing and alerting this story along the way. Thank you all so much! Don't worry though, there's more to come from these characters, I have LOTS of ideas rattling round in my head. They basically won't shut up. So keep an eye out for what happens next.**

**Disclaimer: Not mine, but maybe Santa will be kind this year.**

SPOV

When the sound of stomping feet and the shouts of "Mummy! Eric! Santa's been!" woke us up, it was, according to the bedside clock, only 5.47am. It did feel really early.

"Mum!" Amelia said, arriving in the bedroom. "Get up! Santa brought me a trampoline!" She was practically vibrating with excitement.

"Oh" I said, hauling myself up, "Oh, well actually it was…" but Eric cut me off. "It's for you and Felicia" he said, "It's not just yours."

"But she's a baby!" said Amelia.

"Yeah, but she won't always be a baby, so it's for both of you."

"Fine!" Amelia conceded, "But you have to come now, because I want to go on it." With that she ran out of the room.

I turned to Eric. "Um, she thinks Santa brought it. I was trying to tell her. I think you're Santa now. Is that OK? 'Cos I could still tell her."

"Nah, it's cool. I can live with being Santa. I don't think she really cares one way or the other at the moment." Sure enough the next thing we heard was Amelia shouting "Come ON!" followed by a yell from Felicia who'd been woken up by all the noise.

"OK" I said to Eric. "You go and take Amelia to the trampoline; I'll go and get Felicia up."

He looked at me for a moment and then said "But you're coming aren't you? To the trampoline?"

"Yeah, but I better get Felicia before I go and admire how high Amelia can jump."

"Mmm, maybe you and Felicia could get on it too."

"Oh, well. Maybe. I'll see you out there."

"Yeah."

EPOV

I wasn't really that worried that Amelia had decided the trampoline had come from Santa. The chances of getting much gratitude out of her were probably slim to none anyway, even I realised that kids at Christmas were all about the gifts and not about the thanks.

What I really wanted though was to get Sookie on that trampoline before she got dressed and put a bra on. So I took Amelia out and helped her climb onto it, but I admit that although she kept yelling "Eric! Watch me!" every few seconds, I kept looking at the house hoping that Sookie was just going to get Felicia up and get out here. Like now. Hopefully before Andy was awake, because he was an OK guy, and it was nice of him to help build the trampoline, but I really didn't want him getting a free show.

Thankfully Sookie was outside with Felicia before too much time had passed, and she was still wearing just the tank top she'd slept in. Felicia was shouting "Ma ma ma da da" at the sight of Amelia jumping around, so I guess even she knew there was something new there.

Sookie came and stood next to me "So I take it it's a hit then?" she asked, as Amelia yelled "Look at me jumping, Mummy!"

"Yeah, seems to be one. Are you going to take Felicia on there?"

"Oh, well yeah, I guess I could sit on there with her for a bit. Here you hold her while I climb through the net." I took Felicia off her. Sit, I thought. Well that didn't fucking sound like fun.

It was for Felicia who giggled a lot as she and Sookie bounced gently near the edge, but it wasn't for Amelia who kept fretting that Felicia was taking up too much space, or for me.

After a few minutes however Amelia started asking Sookie to bounce with her. "Well, hang on" said Sookie, "I'm helping Felicia enjoy it at the moment. Maybe in a little while."

"Muuuuum! Please! You have to jump with me!" Amelia whined. I'd never been so fucking thankful for the whining in my life. Surely Sookie would have to give in to the whining?

"OK" Sookie huffed. She shuffled over to the opening in the net. "Here, you take Felicia" she said, handing her to me. Then she stood up and bounced. Briefly, before, I guess, she realised what the whole no-bra effect was like. It was awesome, so it was possibly a good thing for me that she stopped when she did or else it could have been embarrassing.

Best Christmas ever.

Sookie climbed down and held her arms out for Felicia. "Your turn" she said.

"What?"

"You get to have a turn now."

"Um, I'm not really sure if it'll take my weight…"

Sookie looked me up and down. "I think you'll be fine for a bit on there. Go on."

"Yay! Eric!" Amelia joined in. I looked at Sookie. "I don't think you have a choice" she said. "Plus" she whispered "Now I can perv at you". I looked at her. "You are so obvious Eric, now go and join Amelia for a few minutes and then we'll go inside. God knows, Amelia's shouting so much she's probably woken the neighbourhood by now. They are going to LOVE us this morning."

I didn't think I was that fucking obvious at all. But I hauled myself onto the trampoline and jumped a few times to appease Amelia and Sookie. "Come on!" Sookie called "Let's go inside and see what else Santa brought."

"What else?" Amelia asked, looking at me with a puzzled expression. "I got a trampoline."

"Well there might be other stuff" I said.

"Really?"

"Well, yeah." I got off the trampoline and lifted Amelia down.

"Mummy! There's other stuff!" Amelia shouted as she sprinted past Sookie and Felicia who were halfway back to the house by now.

I caught up to them as they reached the deck. "Jeez" Sookie said "We could have stopped at the tramp and she wouldn't have noticed."

"Doesn't she realise how this works?" I asked.

"Well, she kind of does I guess. But I don't think she really remembers last year all that much. Probably just as well, it wasn't the best day. It was a bit sombre. I just remember lying next to the tree feeling pretty fat and watching Amelia open presents. I'd had to wrap some stuff up for me as well so 'Santa' had visited more than just Amelia. And of course Bill didn't bother to come until it was her bedtime, so it was almost a good thing we had lunch with the Comptons as we needed the distraction of watching a good shouting match."

"Oh." Shit, that sounded like a really fucking crappy Christmas. And I knew what crappy Christmases were like.

By this stage we'd reached the living room and Amelia was dancing around the piles of presents on the floor. "These are mine!" Amelia announced. "See, starts with an 'A'!", and she pointed to where her name was embroidered on the pillowcase.

"Yep, they're yours. So you can open them now if you want…" Amelia had already started tearing paper off, so Sookie's go-ahead was a bit redundant.

She seemed to like what she was getting. Felicia still seemed to like the paper better, but Sookie and I helped her open her presents, until Amelia, having finished with her pile, demanded to be allowed to take over. When those were finished with and Amelia was back going through her horde I turned to Sookie and said "Your turn."

SPOV

Amelia was really getting the hang of this present thing. Last year had been her first year able to really open them herself, but I think the general circumstances of the day had kept her somewhat restrained. This year, she was going all out, and was keen on 'helping' Felicia with hers too. It was going to be a shock to her next year when Felicia wanted to open her own.

When we'd got through all the Santa gifts Eric handed me something from under the tree. It was tiny, wrapped in very pretty paper and felt suspiciously like a jewellery box. Shit, I thought, I'm going to kill him. I also realised that I may have bought him very stink presents.

I almost didn't want to open it, but Amelia looked at me and said "Can I open it?" and Eric said, "No, this one's Mommy's" and I figured I'd better get on with it before she ripped it out of my hand. So I murmured "Mummy!" in his direction and took off the paper. Yep, it was indeed a jewellery box. Bastard.

I stared at it for a moment then lifted the lid. Inside was a necklace. A delicate gold chain with two little hearts threaded onto it. "Oh" I said. "Oh, Eric, it's lovely! Thank you!"

"So, you like it then?" he asked, at the same time as Amelia demanded "What is it?"

"It's a necklace. And yes, I do like it very much." I lifted it out of the box to put it on and noticed that there was something engraved on the hearts. One said Amelia and the other Felicia and on the back were their dates of birth. Oh. Well that was, very, very cool.

I looked at Eric, who was looking a bit worried. "I didn't know what to get you" he said, "So I talked to a jeweller who suggested this because he'd made one before, so I thought it sounded like a good idea. But I had to get the dates from Tara. And, you know, you can always add to it, if you have more kids…" he trailed off.

I leaned over and kissed him. "It's lovely" I said "It really is. I've never had anything so nice, or so personal before. It's just…lovely…" I had to stop for a moment before I did something dumb like cry.

Eric gathered me in his arms and whispered "Your lip's wobbling. I'll assume that's because you do really like it." He helped me get the necklace done up and I looked down at it.

"I really, really do" I said, leaning against him. Amelia came over holding a package of gaudy green plastic jewellery. "Santa brought me a Tinkerbell necklace! I want to put it on." So I opened the package and she put all the jewellery on. It really went with her pyjamas and the tiara she was already wearing.

"I might need my fairy wings..." she said racing off.

I extricated myself from Eric and went to get his presents from under the tree, stopping to move some of Amelia's things out of Felicia's grasp; she'd seen an opportunity when Amelia left the room and gone for it.

"I hope these are OK" I said, handing them to Eric.

"I'm sure they'll be great" he said, taking the paper off the first one. I'd bought him Michael King's History of New Zealand. "Oh, excellent" Eric said when he looked at it. "Thank you." He kissed me.

"Well I thought you might be interested. You'll probably end up knowing more than most Kiwis do. Luckily, it's not a very long book because we don't have a very long history."

Eric smiled and opened up the next present. I'd bought him a GPS. "Scared of losing me, are you?" he asked.

"Scared of you getting lost! I was going to get you an actual book of street maps, but I wasn't convinced you'd know how to read them, plus the fact I'm scared that if you take your eyes off the road you'll drift to the right and cause an accident. But, you know, I hope you like it."

"I do. It will be very useful. Thank you." He kissed me again and then went back to reading the box, so he seemed happy with it.

Amelia arrived back with fairy wings and sparkly ballet shoes on. "Do you want to give Eric the presents from you and Felicia?" I asked her.

"What?" she said.

I handed them to her. "Give these to Eric."

"Oh. OK." She shoved them in Eric's general direction and went back to re-organising her own things and glaring at Felicia.

The first one Eric opened was nominally from Amelia. It was a photo taken the day we went to beach, showing me Felicia and Amelia. Amelia was grinning, Felicia looked a bit worried and I had serious beach hair. But I'd had it framed as it was the only one of the three of us I had.

"I thought that if you ever figure out what you're going to do you might have a desk. Although for God's sake don't put that anywhere other people will see, OK?"

"You look lovely in it" Eric said.

"Yeah, I don't. But thanks anyway."

Eric rolled his eyes and opened the present from Felicia. It was a Christmas ornament, with his name on it in glitter. "Oh" he said "It's like yours and Amelia's."

"Yeah. Felicia got hers too this year, as it's her first Christmas. Judith makes them with the kids at her daycare so she's always made them for the family. I'm just not that artistic."

He got up and hung it on the tree, stopping to kiss Felicia and Amelia on the head on his way, and gave another two presents to Amelia who looked confused. He pointed at me and she handed them over, and then lost interest again.

I opened the one from Amelia. It was obviously one of her artworks, but it had been framed. I looked closely; it seemed to be four round blobs with arms near a really large spiky, green thing. "Amelia" I said "Is this us with the Christmas tree?"

She came over. "Yeah. See there's you, and Eric, and me, and Felicia. And that's Bob." She pointed to a squiggle I hadn't noticed before. "I can't really draw cats though."

"It's very good, thank you" I hugged her and she beamed. "The writing's good too." It said Merry Christmas Mommy Love Amelia in very shaky capitals. "Eric helped!" she said. Underneath he'd written Christmas 2010.

I opened Felicia's next. She'd disappeared into the kitchen so Eric went to retrieve her. It was another framed picture, only this time he'd obviously traced around Felicia's hands, although there was a small scribble that suggested she'd been allowed to hold the felt-tip for a while, and this time all the writing was Eric's.

"Thank you Felicia" I said. "Ma!" she said back happily. "And thank you too" I said to Eric.

"Yeah. I didn't know what, um…they wanted to get you, so we came up with this."

"It's brilliant."

"Yeah, I like mine too. Thanks Ames!"

"What?" she said, having lost what was going on.

"And thank you Felicia" he kissed the top of her head. "Bub!" she gurgled.

"Can I go back on the trampoline?" asked Amelia.

"After breakfast" I said.

"Is it breakfast now? I'm hungry!"

"Yeah, OK. I'll get onto that then" Eric said. "You can have a shower if you like."

So I did. And as nice as it is showering with Eric, it was also nice showering alone when I knew I could take my time because he was dealing with the tiny Christmas fairy and her offsider. And breakfast. I wondered what we were getting.

When I arrived back in the kitchen Eric handed me a glass of champagne. Or, I guess, more properly methode champenoise. "Yay!" I said, clinking glasses and taking a sip. "All I really wanted when I was pregnant with Felicia was a glass of really dry bubbly and I couldn't bring myself to have any. So this Christmas is definitely looking up."

"Because you can drink alcohol?"

"Yeah…for lots of reasons. Like, I'm getting…scrambled eggs and smoked salmon for brekkie?"

"Yep. It's nearly ready. But I have one more thing for your first, follow me."

I frowned. "I thought we'd done presents?"

"Just one more, but I had to get it out of its hiding place."

I followed Eric out to the deck where there now sat a large, bright red, ottoman. Big enough for several people to sit on.

"Oh" I said, "That's huge!"

"Yeah. Well I thought it would be useful, you know. For sitting on when you're watching Amelia on the trampoline…and other things."

It dawned on me what he meant. I swatted his shoulder. "You shouldn't always count me as a sure thing!" I said.

"Yeah, you are. And I promise I'll turn the sensor light off next time." Eric smirked at me and I tried to give him a filthy look, but he just laughed at me. "Right, let's go and get breakfast" he said, walking inside.

"Where was it anyway?" I asked, following him.

"In the shed, uh, garage overnight. Calvin had it before that."

"Oh. Good plan."

Breakfast was very nice. Amelia liked her eggs but turned her nose up at the smoked salmon. Felicia enjoyed her scrambled yolks and liked the pieces of bagel I gave her because they made an interesting noise when you hurled them on the floor. Eric was right; she could throw a long way.

Afterwards I sent Eric off to the shower and went to make my Christmas phone calls. The one to Judith was pretty brief, she was mainly moaning about Lorena and Portia ruining the day. I sympathised.

"And I had to sit all the way through midnight mass last night with Mum going on and on about Calvin 'hanging out with Sookie's lover'. Honestly. Poor Eric. I don't know why she's got such a bee in her bonnet about it. It's none of her business."

"Yeah, well. Possibly she's lonely?" I theorised.

"How could she be lonely? She's got us all wrapped all around her little finger. I think it's just her payback for all those years she looked after Nanny Marija. I miss her."

Yeah, she was entertaining. Prone to yelling random things in Croatian that only Lorena could understand.

"You're going to her grave this morning?" I asked.

"Yep, but not until Portia is ready, and she's at church. Although it's a Baptist church so Mum doesn't think it's the real deal and is therefore all huffy about the whole thing, and so I won't be able to serve anyone lunch until the middle of the afternoon and I'm over it. Not to mention we'll probably get another round of 'why does Calvin spend so much time with Sookie's lover?", and if she starts that in front of Calvin himself then I'll get caught in the middle of them. Next year, I swear, we are going camping on Christmas Eve, far away from my family. Caroline has the bloody right idea."

There wasn't much I could say. Then I had a thought. "Actually" I said, "its fiancé, Eric is now my fiancé."

"Shit, really?"

"Uh-huh."

"Since when?"

"Since, um, I don't know. The day before yesterday."

"Oh, well does Calvin know? He didn't say anything. He's useless at passing on information."

"No I think we forgot to say in all the excitement of the trampoline."

"Oh, well, that's great. Congratulations! Mum'll freak." She sounded really happy about that last part.

"Yeah, I guess it will make Christmas lunch interesting. And it'll keep her off your back for a bit."

"Yeah, I'll bear that in mind and pull out the news when Portia and Mum are going at it."

"Well, glad to be of use."

"Yeah. Good luck with your next mother-in-law!"

"Oh, um. Eric doesn't have a mum. She ran off when he was little apparently."

"Really? Wow. You lucked out! Calvin's mum's a nightmare, thank god she's in Jo'burg and not here or else I would have had to have it out with her by now."

Yeah, Judith was one of the fighting Comptons alright; I could see that coming out in Amelia occasionally. I couldn't think of much to say to that other than, "Right."

"Oh, sounds like Calvin's back with Mum. So I better go. Merry Christmas and say congrats to Eric too!"

"Yeah, I will do. Bye Judith."

"Bye."

Well it was good to know I could still give the Comptons something to talk about even if I wasn't there. I wonder how long before the news got to Caroline in Bali. I gave it eight hours maximum.

Next I had to ring Jason. I had no clue where he'd be so I rang his mobile. "Sookie, Merry Christmas!" he said when he finally answered it.

"Yeah, Merry Christmas to you too. Wow, it's noisy where you are, what's happening?"

"Oh, I'm at the marae. Been helping with the hangi for today. We had to dig the pits yesterday, so that was fuckin' hard work, eh? But it should be good. I went pig hunting with Crystal's dad to get the pork for it, eh?"

"You…shot a pig?"

"Yeah, couple, eh. It was choice. Gonna get my gun licence so I can get my own gun and go out with them more often."

Shit, I thought. Once upon a time the most lethal thing Jason owned was his souped up Subaru, now he was going to get a gun. What were these people thinking taking him hunting? I wanted to go and yell at them. I guess he was an adult, but still. It's Jason. They shouldn't be letting him take that kind of risk.

"Oh, that's great, Jase" I managed to stutter out. Just then someone in the background yelled something at Jason and he laughed "Yeah, ka pai Eddie! See you in the wharenui later, eh. E haere ra"

OK. That was my brother. Down with the Tangata Whenua.

"Wow, Jason. You know Maori!" I said, reasonably impressed.

"Yeah, well Crystal's trying to bring up the kids to be bilingual, eh? So she speaks it at home, and if I want to know what the fuck those kids are saying, then I gotta learn it too, eh. S'alright though. The kids are pretty hot on it though, 'cos they go to the Kohunga Reo. 'Cept for Wayne. Mostly he just swears a lot, little fucker."

I was quite impressed. Especially with Crystal, if she was able to bring the up kids knowing both languages. That was pretty cool, and I was slightly jealous of Jason.

"That's actually quite amazing Jason. I'm so impressed you can learn stuff, still, you know…at your age…"

"Fuck off Sookie! I'm not over the hill yet!"

"No, I just meant…well, you know. We're not that young anymore."

"Yeah, well I don't think I'll be speaking on the marae anytime soon, eh. But yeah, you're right, we're not that young. Shit, it doesn't seem that long ago since you were running around after me all over fuckin' Papatoetoe."

"Well Mum wouldn't buy me a bike! It wasn't fair!" I was aware that I still sounded a bit like I was four, but boy, that was an injustice I'd been holding onto for a long time, and I wasn't going to suddenly get over it today.

We were silent for a minute then Jason said, "Hang on", and I heard him yelling off into the distance "Oi! Wayne! If you don't fuckin' put that axe down now, there will be trouble! Don't fuckin' make me come over there!"

"Sorry" he said, speaking back into the phone.

I giggled. "You sounded just like Dad then, like he did when he was telling you off. It's uncanny!"

"Yeah, you sound like Mum sometimes too, eh? 'Specially when you go 'honestly Jason!' and sound all annoyed and shit. It's like I'm a kid again."

"I miss them" I blurted out. Jason was the only person I had left who got that.

"Yeah, me too. I wonder what they would have thought of how we turned out, eh?"

"Well, they probably wouldn't have picked you for a farmer! Remember the guinea pigs? You were crap at looking after them."

"Yeah, but they were boring as shit. I don't know why I wanted them."

"I liked them. And the cats thought they were interesting."

"Yeah, I hope they would have been pleased how I turned out, though, eh?"

"I'm sure they would have. I just wish they'd met my kids."

"Yeah, well wish Amelia and Felicia Merry Christmas from Uncle Jase. They must be pretty big now, eh?"

"Yeah, they are."

"I'll have to come and see you guys soon. Maybe when I go to Hamilton for Fieldays."

"Yeah, that sounds good." I was feeling a bit nostalgic and suddenly it didn't seem like such a bad idea to see my big brother after all.

"So you off to your in-laws today?" Jason asked.

"What? Oh no, we're staying here and having lunch. It's Eric's first year here."

"Who?"

"Oh, yeah. He's, um…" Hell, I thought, I might as well say it. "Well we're getting married."

"Sookie, what the fuck? When did this happen?"

"Oh, day before yesterday, I think? Remember I told you about him the last time I phoned."

"You said you were hooking up with someone, not fuckin' marrying them. You sure you're not rushing into this?"

"Yeah, I'm sure."

"Is he better to you than Bill was?"

"Oh Jason!"

"Well, Sook, shit. You're like my only family, eh? Apart from Crystal and the tamariki, so you know, I gotta look after you."

"He's great."

"Well, if he does anything tell him I'll come up there and kick his arse."

I snorted. "Yeah, Jason. Good luck with that!"

"Sookie, all those years playing league I know how to take someone down if I have to, eh?"

"Yeah, fine. I don't think you'll need to."

"Where'd you meet him, on-line?"

"No! At work. He's American."

"American? Shit!" Jason whistled. "Is he loaded?"

"Fuck off Jason! You don't ask people that!"

"Well I don't fuckin' know, eh? They all look pretty fancy when you see them on TV."

"I don't think that's real life. But he's OK. I don't think he's marrying me for my money, at any rate."

"Well, you just be careful. And send us an invitation to the wedding, I'll bring the whanau and you can meet them." Yeah, Jason would be thinking about the free feed he'd get out of it. Oh well, some things would never change.

There was another shout in the background, and Jason yelled "Hang ON!"

"OK Jase, well I'll let you get back to it" I said.

"Yeah, better go and see what Wayne's done now. Crystal's giving me the evils, like it's my fuckin' fault, eh?"

"Have a good Christmas, and take care."

"Yep, you too. Oh, and congratulations, I guess. About the wedding. Shit, maybe I won't bring Crystal it might give her fuckin' ideas. I SAID I WAS FUCKIN' COMING!"

"OK, bye then."

"Bye Sook."

EPOV

When I got out of the shower, Amelia was back on the trampoline and Sookie and Felicia were on the deck watching her. Sookie looked a bit sad though. "You OK?" I asked, sitting next to her on the new ottoman.

"Yeah, I just rang Jason and, well, it reminded me of how much I miss my parents." I put my arm around her and she put her head on my shoulder. She looked at me. "Are you missing anyone?" she asked.

"Honestly? No. Not at all."

"Not even your Dad?"

"Especially not my dad. He did not so much celebrate Christmas as use it as an excuse to get drunk more often and more publicly. It was more about just getting through it really."

"Shit. That's crappy. What about since then though, you don't have friends or anything you miss?"

"Nope. Really Sookie, this is where I want to be. I'm not regretting it, staying here."

"No, I didn't think you were, I just...I don't know, everyone has someone they miss."

I shrugged; there wasn't much I could say to that. If I was defective, then I was defective. "I would miss you" I said. "And Amelia and Felicia. But you're all here, so I'm good."

"Yeah, I'm good too. Oh, and Judith knows we're getting married, so I guess Lorena will soon too."

"Well, that should keep them interested for the afternoon. Gossiping about us."

"Yep. I kinda wish I could see Lorena's face when she finds out, but then again, I'm also glad I don't have to. She does miss Bill and it's just going to remind her, and on Christmas too. Shit, maybe I shouldn't have said anything?"

"Well, she'd have to find out eventually."

"I know. It does seem a bit mean though. Like we're gloating."

"Sookie, you can't make everyone happy all the time. And I think that Lorena is someone you're never going to make happy, no matter what you do."

"I guess."

"She's not your responsibility."

"No."

"But…" I wasn't sure how I wanted to phrase this. "Do you miss Bill too?"

"Um, not really, no. I think I missed him more this time last year when he was only in Onehunga getting high instead of with us. I feel like I've moved on, like he's a really distant memory. It's weird. Anyway, thank you for your part in that, Eric."

"You're most welcome." Fuck, I was glad Bill was history for her. I really didn't him fucking up all the good stuff like Christmas.

"Oh, and I told my brother we're getting married too, and he said he'll kick your arse if you hurt me."

"OK"

"And he's getting a gun."

"So, what? He's going to make me marry you?" I was pretty fucking sure I wasn't going to need anyone putting a gun to my back. Sookie, I wasn't so sure about.

"Only if you're rich apparently. Anyway, we need to start moving on the food. Start up the barbecue."

"What for?"

"The Christmas pudding, I need to move it off the stove. Oh, and I'll sit the chicken on it when it's finished so I can free up the oven, and the potatoes. How anyone ever cooks Christmas lunch when it's cold I do not know."

"No, well they manage."

"They must put the barbecue in the garage or something."

"Yeah, or something."

I got the barbecue started and watched Amelia jump up and down some more. Fuck that kid had energy. Although the trampoline was doing an awesome job of keeping her occupied, and with the net she was stuck in there until one of us got her out. I wondered how long the novelty would last.

Sookie was busy in the kitchen so when she did want out, I had to go and rescue her. She was hot and looked a bit tired, but happy. It looked as though Santa had done a pretty good job with the presents.

I took her into the kitchen where she immediately went "I'm hungry, Mum. I want some of Eric's biscuits. Eric, can I?"

"If your mother says yes."

"What?" asked Sookie who was a bit distracted.

"Eric's biscuits!" Amelia shouted. "The ones in the box, I want some of the pink ones!" She was after some of the weird pink wafer cookies that came in the box that Judith and Calvin had given me.

"You can have two" Sookie said without looking up.

I watched as Amelia got herself a pink, plastic plate and went to get the box out of the pantry. And helped herself to four of the cookies. Sookie looked over at the plate. "I said two" she said.

"I didn't hear you."

"Well, you can have two."

"I want four."

"Two."

"How about…if I eat two, then there'll be two?" Amelia looked thrilled with that logic, and I was struggling to keep a straight face.

"It doesn't work like that" Sookie informed her.

"Yeah. It does!" Amelia was obviously worried that Sookie had failed basic maths somewhere along the line.

Sookie sighed. "Fine! But only because it's Christmas." Amelia skipped off. I noticed that she was getting away with a lot of stuff because it was Christmas. I wondered if that concession would extend to me as well.

About a minute later Amelia was back and showed Sookie her plate. "See!" she said. "I ate two and now there's two left! It does work that way."

"Amelia, honey. If you ate two and then you eat another two, you still eat four. I said you could only eat two. It doesn't matter how many are on the plate."

"Oh" Amelia finally got it, then realised she'd come out on top. "Oh well" she said and raced off smiling.

"She's going to try that on me again now" Sookie said.

"Yep."

"Bugger."

"Yep."

Sookie gathered herself. "Right, OK. Now, you can take the chicken out to the barbecue then come back and slice the ham, by which stage I think the potatoes will be almost done, and the rest of the veges will be about there. So I'll make the cheese sauce and the gravy, and then you can bring the chicken back in and carve it, OK?"

"Um, OK. So chicken goes out first?"

"Yeah, it's here in tinfoil."

"I think you'll find that's aluminium."

"Yeah, whatever. Kitchen help doesn't get to be smart though, not if it wants to eat the food later on, so chop, chop, mate. Snap to it!"

I shut up and did as I was told before Sookie got any more snarky. The day so far had been going well; I did not want to be the one responsible for pushing her over the edge. With any luck, if anyone did push her over it would be one of the kids and I could pick up the pieces. I was starting to realise that it all worked a bit better if I just concentrated on keeping Sookie sane.

A little while later I was standing in the kitchen trying to figure out how on earth you were supposed to carve a chicken. I'd already been told once to just hurry up and do it. All of a sudden I felt something on the back of my calves. And heard some giggling. I twisted and looked down as best I could. Felicia had decided to pull herself up again, only this time, she was using me for balance.

Sookie wasn't looking in my direction, and she shoved a bowl at me and said "Take that to the table".

"Um, I'm kind of stuck."

"Stuck?" Sookie looked over, and I nodded in Felicia's direction. "Oh" she said. "Well, yeah, you are. She looks really pleased with herself for coming up with that idea."

"How long do you think she'll stay there?" Felicia was still giggling away to herself.

"Until she gets tired. Although you seem to be taking a lot of her weight, so I don't know. Hopefully you won't miss lunch."

"Ha ha. I'm counting on you to rescue me if it comes to that."

"Yeah, but she needs the standing practice, so you know…it would be a shame…" Sookie stepped around us and carried something to the table, and then she disappeared from view, returning a minute later with the camera.

"Right, everybody. Smile!" she said pointing it at us. "Bub!" Felicia yelled, sitting down on her bottom.

"I just got that, I think. Here have a look." Sookie brought the camera over and showed me the picture. Felicia was grinning enormously. "She thinks she's pretty clever doing that" Sookie commented.

"Well, she is."

"Yeah, be prepared to be used as a solid object from here on in I think." Sookie said, going back to the food preparation. I wasn't sure whether to be pleased or not that Felicia saw me as a part of the furniture. It was actually kind of nice in a way. I liked it when they all needed me for shit, even if all that was required was that I just stand there and not move.

It felt a bit weird eating Christmas lunch in the middle of a hot day with all the doors and windows open, but the food more than made up for it. Although I seemed to be the only one eating most of it. Sookie declared she was kind of over it having cooked the meal, and Amelia was far too excited to eat much. Felicia had a small plate with bits of food on it, but a lot ended up on the floor. I just turned a blind eye to the small plate with pieces of chicken and ham put aside which was obviously for Bob. Fuck, let him enjoy Christmas as well. Although I guess no one was going to make him wear a stupid paper hat like I had to.

All in all it was fucking awesome. Probably the first family Christmas I'd ever had. I was starting to understand why people made such a big deal about the holiday. I'd always wondered why half the staff in my office were trying to be somewhere else on Christmas day so they could celebrate with their families. It sounded like a lot of fucking effort for nothing to me, I mean, shit. It was just sitting around with a bunch of people you were related to, where was the fun in that? But I kind of got it now. And I had no intention of missing any Christmases with Sookie and the kids.

When Sookie and I were standing in the kitchen after lunch, packing away leftovers and stacking the dishwasher, I leaned over and kissed her. "Thank you" I said.

"Oh, no problem. It was just a roast really."

"No, not just lunch…just, Christmas, and, well, everything."

"Oh, OK. Well you're very welcome. I like having you here at Christmas. Last year everything was just so…broken. And now it's not. I like being part of a family again. So thank you, Eric."

Just then Amelia went past. One of her presents from Santa had been a broom, which Sookie insisted wasn't weird at all because 'she likes to help me with the cleaning!' Only now she was using the broom like it was a hobby horse. "Look!" she shouted "I'm a witch!"

Sookie glanced up. "Yeah, 'course you are sweetheart."

"What happened to the fairy thing?" I asked.

"I think it's a five minute wonder" Sookie said.

SPOV

Lunch had been a success, and now we got to the bit of Christmas I actually liked. The sitting around eating chocolates part of the day.

I finished cleaning up in the kitchen and went to sit on the deck on my new ottoman. Amelia was back on the trampoline. Eric was playing with his GPS and working out how to get it to give him distances in miles, which seemed like a totally wasted exercise when all the street signs were going to be in kilometres anyway. He really needed to move into the 21st century.

"Do you think maybe it would be easier to just recalibrate you for metric?" I asked him, as I sat down.

"There's nothing wrong with me! I just don't get the way you guys measure distance is all. It's fucking weird." He went back to his task with a lot of muttering, but I recognised it as happy muttering. He seemed to be having fun.

"Mum! Come and jump too!" Amelia yelled.

"Mummy's a bit tired" I yelled back.

"Go on" said Eric. I rolled my eyes. "Well, you know, it is Christmas" he said.

"Muuuuum!" Amelia yelled again.

"Fine, here I come" I yelled.

EPOV

That trampoline was a fucking brilliant idea on my part. As long as Amelia didn't want me to get on it again. It wasn't really my thing. Sookie, however, definitely her thing.

She didn't stay on there for long though, and she climbed out and started walking back across the lawn. I was still trying to figure out how the GPS worked. I could probably have read more of the instructions but those things are usually written for idiots and could do with some serious editing. I was pretty convinced I could work it out.

Just as Sookie was coming back up the steps to the deck, Bob appeared, and of course he fucking had something in his mouth. Fuck, if he gave that to me and ruined the afternoon he was finding a fucking new home.

Sookie froze, waiting for him to go past and give whatever the fuck it was to me. But he didn't, he marched right up to Sookie and dropped a half dead looking flower at her feet.

"Oh. Pohutakawa! Thank you Bob!" Sookie said. Fuck, she seemed impressed.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to see.

"Po-hoo-tar-car-wah" Sookie enunciated. "New Zealand Christmas tree it's known as, because it blossoms at this time of year, and it's red. Bob must have brought it over from Halleigh and Andy's"

"Oh"

"Oh, thank you Bob." She picked him up and hugged him to her chest. "Come on Bob, baby. I've got Christmas lunch for you inside." She put her face in his fur, and then started to carry him in to the kitchen. I swear that cat fucking smirked at me as he went past. I think he's smarter than any of us give him credit for. He certainly knows how to play Sookie.

At that point though Amelia needed a drink and I had to go and get her out of the trampoline.

SPOV

By the evening Amelia was starting to wilt big time. Felicia had at least had a nap, but the early start, combined with all that time on the trampoline, turned Amelia into a bit of a pain in the bum. There was a lot of whinging and some crying when I said no more biscuits. Eric was great though; he took her for a walk up the street for a little bit to snap her out of the mood.

We had leftovers for dinner, well I picked at things. Eric had ham and chicken sandwiches. Amelia had a marmite sandwich and then we sent her off to bed because she was just about dropping off at the table. She wanted to sleep with the broom though. And she asked a few times if the trampoline would still be there in the morning. Unfortunately, we couldn't fit that in her bed with her.

Felicia was less interested in bedtime and it took her a while to stop moving around and singing "Ba ba ba ba" to herself. I pottered around doing the last bit of clean up and I fretted. I knew that Eric liked his GPS, you could tell because he was still playing with it, but at the same time...my necklace was amazing. It was handmade and personalised and just…wow. I felt a bit like I'd short-changed him somewhere. I just wasn't sure what else I could do.

To top it all off I wasn't sure he'd got the right idea about how I felt about getting married. I was trying so hard to get over my fears for that, because really when I sat down and thought about it, it was the alternative, the one where Eric wasn't here, that felt wrong. But I'd caught Eric looking at me, as if he was scared I was going to change my mind.

So I was standing in the kitchen absent-mindedly wiping the bench when Eric came in. "Hey" I said, "So have you got it all sorted out?"

"Um, pretty much, I think. We need to go somewhere to test it."

"Well, we could take a drive tomorrow, maybe go out to Piha?"

"Yeah, that sounds good."

"And then watch the cricket when we get back."

"Um, OK."

"You'll like it, it's not like it's a five day test or anything."

"They play for five days?"

"Yeah, and sometimes even after all that time, it's a draw."

"Sounds riveting."

"You'll get used to it."

"I'm really not sure I want to. Anyway, let's go and sit outside." Eric opened the other bottle of bubbly and handed me a glass. I followed him out to the deck and we sat on the ottoman, with the bottle on the deck next to us.

"I really like this" I said, patting the ottoman.

"Yeah, I hoped you would. We can test it later on."

"Dream on. First it has to get dark enough, and late enough that everyone in the neighbourhood is asleep, and then..."

Eric cut me off. "Just shut up and drink your champagne. It will seem like a better idea soon."

I giggled. "Are you trying to get me drunk?"

Eric looked at me, "Would I?" he asked.

I snorted. "Don't even try to look innocent. It doesn't suit you."

We were quiet for a bit, and then Eric said "Well it is getting later, the stars are starting to come out."

"Yeah…hey, do they look different?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, it's a different hemisphere, so you know, the stars are different. So if you'd lived like, oooh, a thousand years ago or something you'd be totally lost because you wouldn't be able to find any of the markers you were used to, and you'd never get home. So, do they?"

"Um, no, not really…"

"Yeah. I couldn't tell the difference when I lived in London. I kind of suck with stars; I can't even find the Southern Cross."

"Southern Cross?"

"Yeah, it's on our flag. And the Australian one, but they went for accuracy over aesthetics and it's not as good."

"Oh."

We were silent again and then Eric said "I don't really need stars though."

"What?"

"I don't really need the stars to figure out where home is. I think you're the only marker I need for that."

"Oh. Oh, that's really lovely."

"No lip wobbling though!" Eric warned.

"I wasn't!" Eric leaned over and we kissed. And then I had an idea. I suddenly realised what it was I wanted to say.

"Eric?"

"Yeah."

"I feel like, well…I love my necklace. It's beautiful, and the fact that it celebrates my daughters... I mean, poor old Felicia her birth kind of got over-shadowed by everything else that was happening and she missed out a bit. But this reminds me just how special it was, and how lucky I am to have them, even if Amelia drives me nuts. So, thank you for that. The fact that you, I don't know…recognise the fact that it's special is just amazing. You're amazing. And I love you very much."

"I love you too Sookie."

"And so, what I really wanted to say is…" I paused and took a deep breath. Eric was looking at me really intently waiting see where this is going, and I had to fight my natural instincts to look away and avoid his gaze. "Eric, I want you to know that despite the fact I've been a bit…skittish the last couple of days, I really do want to spend the rest of my life with you. I don't have a lot to offer, just me and half share in each of my kids. So, Eric Northman, will you marry me?"

Eric broke out into a grin. "Sookie Stackhouse, it would be my pleasure." And then we kissed again, clinking our glasses in a toast when we broke apart.

EPOV

Fuck, this was definitely the best Christmas ever. "So" I said, pouring Sookie some more champagne, "it's a lot darker now".

"Yeah, it's definitely getting darker."

"Drink up your champagne then."

"I can't believe you bought this specifically to have sex on."

"Well, not specifically for that. But it did cross my mind. And at the moment, I'm having trouble thinking about anything else."

"Yeah, I'm kind of starting to see your point." She finished her champagne and said "Right, I'll be back in a minute." I heard her moving around the house while I drained my glass. Fuck, Sookie had actually asked me to marry her. She really did want this. She really did want me.

The lights in the house turned off and Sookie re-appeared on the deck. "I remembered the sensor light" she said, handing me a blanket and a condom.

I stood up and wrapped the blanket around my waist and dropped my shorts and underwear. Sookie just giggled. "What?" I asked.

"This is so not romantic."

"No, but it's hot."

"Yeah, it is. Fine, we can do romance later."

"Ooh, there's a later? Remind me to pace myself."

Sookie sat next to me and we kissed and I managed to get her t-shirt pushed up and her bra pulled down which gave me access to her nipple. I was pleasantly surprised when I ran my hand up under her skirt to find she'd lost her panties at some point when she'd been in the house. And she was fucking wet.

She stuck her hand under the blanket and stroked me, before I put the condom on and opened up the blanket so she could straddle my legs. She lowered herself onto me and both of us let out a sigh of relief. Sookie wrapped her arms around my shoulders and began to move. Fuck this was awesome, she was awesome. I was so fucking lucky.

"I love you Sookie" I said.

"I love you too"

And then she stopped, and I wondered what the hell had happened. "What?" I asked.

"Sssh!" Sookie said. And then I heard it too. Voices. Andy and Halleigh's voices, they must have been sitting on their deck. They couldn't see us, but they might have been able to hear us.

Sookie began to move again, she was biting her lip trying to keep quiet. When she came, clamping hard around me, she buried her face in my shoulder to keep quiet. When I came, just after, I couldn't help myself. I said "Sookie!" not loudly, but loud enough. The voices next door stopped.

"Eric!" Sookie whispered at me. I shrugged, and then I stood up, making Sookie wrap her legs around me to hold on, and I walked us inside and into the bathroom.

Sookie frowned at me. "What?" I asked. "I'm allowed. I was just fucking my wife on my deck. Now I'm going to put her in our shower and get her nice and clean, then I'm going to carry her to our bed and make love to her. What is so wrong with that?"

Sookie just looked at me. "Fine. It's Christmas. I'll let you off."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and also because you're never going to change so I might as well get used to it."

"You might as well." We stepped into the shower. "I love Christmas" I said as I started to work shower gel over Sookie's boobs.

"Yeah, me too. Merry Christmas, Eric. I hope you got what you wanted."

"Everything I wanted and more. You have a lot to live up to for next Christmas you know."

"I'm sure I'll think of something."

"Yeah, I'm sure you will. Merry Christmas, Sookie." And then I did actually manage to shut up for a bit because I was far too busy kissing my wife.

**Hope you all enjoyed Christmas day in the summer! Thanks for reading!**

**Notes:**

**Marae (Ma-rye): the area for formal discourse in front of a meeting house or applied to a whole marae complex, including meeting house, dining hall, forecourt, etc.**

**Hangi (Hung-ee): traditional Māori method of cooking food using heated rocks buried in a pit oven still used for special occasions.**

**Ka pai (Car pie): Very Good**

**Wharenui (Far-ree-noo-ee): meeting house.**

**E Haere ra (Eh hi-ray rar): Goodbye (if you are the person staying).**

**Tangata Whenua (Tongue-ah-ta Fen-oo-ah): The people of the land, i.e. Maori who see themselves as guardians of the natural world, and, more specifically, New Zealand.**

**Kohunga Reo (Co-hung-ah Ray-oh): Total immersion Maori language pre-school.**

**Tamariki (Tar-mar-ree-key): Children**

**Whanau (Far-now): Family**

**Once again, I have NO specialised knowledge in Maori and am not an expert in meaning or pronunciation.**

**Fieldays is the big agricultural show they have in Hamilton once a year. It is HUGE in the agricultural sector, and there's a lot of agriculture in New Zealand.**

**The league that Jason mentions is Rugby League, which is slightly different to Rugby Union, which is what the All Blacks play and was shown in the movie Invictus. Don't ask me to explain the difference!**

**Hope that's everything, let me know if there was anything else that needs explaining! See you all again soon!**


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